Daily Strength for Daily Needs by Mary W. Tileston (story read aloud .TXT) 📕

SCHMOLCK.

Nothing else but this seeing God in everything will make us loving and patient with those who annoy and trouble us. They will be to us then only the instruments for accomplishing His tender and wise purposes towards us, and we shall even find ourselves at last inwardly thanking them for the blessings they bring us. Nothing else will completely put an end to all murmuring or rebelling thoughts.

H. W. SMITH.

The subjection of the will is accomplished by calmly resigning thyself in everything that internally or externally vexes thee; for it is thus only that the soul is prepared for the reception of divine influences. Prepare the, heart like clean paper, and the Divine Wisdom will imprint on it characters to His own liking.

M. DE MOLINOS.

October 28

_I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end_.--JER. xxix. 11.

Thy thoughts are good, and Thou art kind, E'en when we think it not; How many an anxious, faithless mind Sits grieving o'er its lot, And frets, and pines by day and night, As God had lost it out of sight, And all its wants forgot.

P. GERHARDT.

You are never to complain of your birth, your training, your employments, your hardships; never to fancy that you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. God understands His own plan, and He knows what you want a great deal better than you do. The very things that you most deprecate, as fatal limitations or obstructions, are probably what you most want. What you call hindrances, obstacles, discouragements, are probably God's opportunities. Bring down your soul, or, rather, bring it up to receive God's will and do His work, in your lot, in your sphere, under your cloud of obscurity, against your temptations, and then you shall find that your condition is never opposed to your good, but really consistent with it.

H. BUSHNELL.

October 29

_Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction_--ISA. xlviii. 10.

Be patient, suffering soul! I hear thy cry. The trial fires may glow, but I am nigh. I see the silver, and I will refine Until My image shall upon it shine. Fear not, for I am near, thy help to be; Greater than all thy pain, My love for thee.

H. W. C.

God takes a thousand times more pains with us than the artist with his picture, by many touches of sorrow, and by many colors of circumstance, to bring man into the form which is the highest and noblest in His sight, if only we received His gifts and myrrh in the right spirit. But when the cup is put away, and these feelings are stifled or unheeded, a greater injury is done to the soul than can ever be amended. For no heart can conceive in what surpassing love God giveth us this myrrh; yet this which we ought to receive to our soul's good, we suffer to pass by us in our sleepy indifference, and nothing comes, of it. Then we come and complain: "Alas, Lord! I am so dry, and it is so dark within me!" I tell thee, dear child, open thy heart to the pain, and it will do thee more good than if thou wert full of feeling and devoutness.

J. TAULER.

October 30

_That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us_.--2 TIM. i. 14.

Oh that the Comforter would come! Nor visit as a transient guest, But fix in me His constant home, And keep possession of my breast: And make my soul His loved abode, The temple of indwelling God!

C. WESLEY.

Thy spirit should become, while yet on earth, the peaceful throne of the Divine Being; think, then, how quiet, how gentle and pure, how reverent, thou shouldst be.

GERHARD TERSTEEGEN.

I cannot tell you how much I love you. But that which of all things I have most at heart, with regard to you, is the real progress of your soul in the divine life. Heaven seems to be awakened in you. It is a tender plant. It requires stillness, meekness, and the unity of the heart, totally given up to the unknown workings of the Spirit of God, which will do all its work in the calm soul, that has no hunger or desire but to escape out of the mire of its earthly life into its lost union and life in God. I mention this, out of a fear of your giving in to an eagerness about many things, which, though seemingly innocent, yet divide and weaken the workings of the divine life within you.

WM. LAW.

October 31

And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.--GEN. v. 24.

Oh for a closer walk with God, A calm and heavenly frame; A light to shine upon the road That leads me to the Lamb!

W. COWPER.

Is it possible for any of us in these modern days to so live that we may walk with God? Can we walk with God in the shop, in the office, in the household, and on the street? When men exasperate us, and work wearies us, and the children fret, and the servants annoy, and our best-laid plans fall to pieces, and our castles in the air are dissipated like bubbles that break at a breath, then can we walk with God? That religion which fails us in the every-day trials and experiences of life has somewhere in it a flaw. It should be more than a plank to sustain us in the rushing tide, and land us exhausted and dripping on the other side. It ought, if it come from above, to be always, day by day, to our souls as the wings of a bird, bearing us away from and beyond the impediments which seek to hold us down. If the Divine Love be a conscious presence, an indwelling force with us, it will do this.

CHRISTIAN UNION.

November 1

Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.--EPH. iii. 15.

One family, we dwell in Him; One church above, beneath; Though now divided by the stream,-- The narrow stream of death.

One army of the living God, To His command we bow: Part of His host has crossed the flood, And part is crossing now.

C. WESLEY.

Let us, then, learn that we can never be lonely or forsaken in this life. Shall they forget us because they are "made perfect"? Shall they love us the less because they now have power to love us more? If we forget them not, shall they not remember us with God? No trial, then, can isolate us, no sorrow can cut us off from the Communion of Saints. Kneel down, and you are with them; lift up your eyes, and the heavenly world, high above all perturbation, hangs serenely overhead; only a thin veil, it may be, floats between. All whom we loved, and all who loved us, whom we still love no less, while they love us yet more, are ever near, because ever in His presence in whom we live and dwell.

H. E. MANNING.

November 2

_Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us_.--HEB. xii. i.

When the powers of hell prevail O'er our weakness and unfitness, Could we lift the fleshly veil, Could we for a moment witness Those unnumbered hosts that stand Calm and bright on either hand;

Oh, what joyful hope would cheer, Oh, what faith serene would guide us! Great may be the danger near, Greater are the friends beside us.

ANON.

We are compassed about by a cloud of witnesses, whose hearts throb in sympathy with every effort and struggle, and who thrill with joy at every success. How should this thought check and rebuke every worldly feeling and unworthy purpose, and enshrine us, in the midst of a forgetful and un-spiritual world, with an atmosphere of heavenly peace! They have overcome--have risen--are crowned, glorified; but still they remain to us, our assistants, our comforters, and in every hour of darkness their voice speaks to us: "So we grieved, so we struggled, so we fainted, so we doubted; but we have overcome, we have obtained, we have seen, we have found,--and in our victory behold the certainty of thy own."

H. B. STOWE.

November 3

_Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another_.--EPH. iv. 25.

In conversation be sincere; Keep conscience as the noontide clear; Think how All-seeing God thy ways And all thy secret thoughts surveys.

THOMAS KEN.

The essence of lying is in deception, not in words; a lie may be told by silence, by equivocation, by the accent on a syllable, by a glance of the eye attaching a peculiar significance to a sentence; and all these kinds of lies are worse and baser by many degrees than a lie plainly worded; so that no form of blinded conscience is so far sunk as that which comforts itself for having deceived because the deception was by gesture or silence, instead of utterance.

J. RUSKIN.

He that is habituated to deceptions and artificialities in trifles, will try in vain to be true in matters of importance; for truth is a thing of habit rather than of will. You cannot in any given case by any sudden and single effort will to be true, if the habit of your life has been insincerity.

F. W. ROBERTSON.

November 4

_A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger_.--PROV. xv. i,

Doest thou well to be angry?--JONAH iv. 4.

Renew Thine image, Lord, in me, Lowly and gentle may I be; No charms but these to Thee are dear; No anger mayst Thou ever find, No pride in my unruffled mind, But faith, and heaven-born peace be there.

P. GERHARDT.

Neither say nor do aught displeasing to thy neighbor; and if thou hast been wanting in charity, seek his forgiveness, or speak to him with gentleness. Speak always with mildness and in a low tone of voice.

L. SCUPOLI.

Injuries hurt not more in the receiving than in the remembrance. A small injury shall go as it comes; a great injury may dine or sup with me; but none at all shall lodge with me. Why should I vex myself because another hath vexed me? Grief for things past that cannot be remedied, and care for things to come that cannot be prevented, may easily hurt, can never benefit me. I will therefore commit myself to God in both, and enjoy the present.

JOSEPH HALL.

November 5

The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.--I COR. iii. 17.

Now shed Thy mighty influence abroad On souls that would their Father's image bear; Make us as holy temples of our God, Where dwells forever calm, adoring prayer.

C. J. P. SPITTA.

This pearl of eternity is the church or temple of God within thee, the consecrated place of divine worship, where alone thou canst worship God in spirit and in truth. When once thou art well grounded in this inward worship,