The Summer Will Come

"Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you" (Isa. 30:18).

Where showers fall most, there the grass is greenest. I suppose the fogs and mists of Ireland make it "the Emerald Isle"; and whenever you find great fogs of trouble, and mists of sorrow, you always find emerald green hearts; full of the beautiful verdure of the comfort and love of God. O Christian, do not thou be saying, "Where are the swallows gone? They are gone; they are dead." They are not dead; they have skimmed the purple sea, and gone to a far-off land; but they will be back again by and by. Child of God, say not the flowers are dead; say not the winter has killed them, and they are gone. Ah, no! though winter hath coated them with the ermine of its snow; they will put up their heads again, and will be alive very soon. Say not, child of God, that the sun is quenched, because the cloud hath hidden it. Ah, no; he is behind there, brewing summer for thee; for when he cometh out again, he will have made the clouds fit to drop in April showers, all of them mothers of the sweet May flowers. And oh! above all, when thy God hides His face, say not that He hath forgotten thee. He is but tarrying a little while to make thee love Him better; and when He cometh, thou shalt have joy in the Lord, and shalt rejoice with joy unspeakable. Waiting exercises our grace; waiting tries our faith; therefore, wait on in hope; for though the promise tarry, it can never come too late. --C. H. Spurgeon

LED BY THE SPIRIT

"As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."¡XROM. viii. 14.

Let us now consider four other fruits of the Spirit: Long-suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Meekness. These four words all denote attributes of the Godhead. They will reach maturity in us through much prayer for the working of the Holy Spirit. Think of what they mean.

Long-suffering.¡XIn the Old Testament, in the time of Moses, God's long-suffering was praised. All Scripture bears witness to the wonderful patience with which God dealt with sinful man, until we come to the word in 2 Pet. iii. 9: "The Lord is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." This attribute of God, the Spirit will make a characteristic of our lives, so that we too may exercise a divine patience with all sin and wrong, so that souls may be saved.

Gentleness.¡XWhat wonderful things we read in the Psalms about God's goodness and gentleness, which are from everlasting to everlasting. "As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy towards them that fear Him." God works in our hearts this same goodness and mercy towards all the sin and wretchedness around us.

Goodness.¡X"There is none good but God." All goodness comes from Him, and He gives to His children according as each heart asks and desires. And this goodness is manifested in sym¬pathy and love to all who are in need.

Meekness.¡XWe read in Ps. xviii. 35: "Thy gentleness hath made me great." But it was chiefly in God's Son that the divine meekness was shown. Jesus says: "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart." Paul entreats his readers "by the gentleness and meekness of Christ." The Holy Spirit, too, the gentle Dove, longs to impart the ripe fruit of meekness to our hearts.

Is it not a wonderful thought that these four attributes of God, which are the characteristics of God's work amongst sinners, may be brought to ripeness in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, so that we in all our ways and conversation may be like the Meek and Lowly One?

What Sanctifies Our Offerings?

"And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD" (Leviticus 4:7).

The altar of incense is the place where saints present their prayers and praises; and it is delightful to think of it as sprinkled with the blood of the great sacrifice. This it is which makes all our worship acceptable with Jehovah: He sees the blood of His own Son and therefore accepts our homage.

It is well for us to fix our eyes upon the blood of the one offering for sin. Sin mingles even with our holy things, and our best repentance, faith, prayer, and thanksgiving could not be received of God were it not for the merit of the atoning sacrifice. Many sneer at "the blood"; but to us it is the foundation of comfort and hope. That which is on the horns of the altar is meant to be prominently before our eyes when we draw near to God. The blood gives strength to prayer, and hence it is on the altar's horns. It is "before the LORD," and therefore it ought to be before us. It is on the altar before we bring the incense; it is there to sanctify our offerings and gifts.

Come, let us pray with confidence, since the Victim is offered, the merit has been pleaded, the blood is within the veil, and the prayers of believers must be sweet unto the LORD.

Morning, October 9

¡§Able to keep you from falling.¡¨(Jude 24)

In some sense the path to heaven is very safe, but in other respects there is no road so dangerous. It is beset with difficulties. One false step (and how easy it is to take that if grace be absent), and down we go. What a slippery path is that which some of us have to tread! How many times have we to exclaim with the Psalmist, ¡§My feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped.¡¨ If we were strong, sure-footed mountaineers, this would not matter so much; but in ourselves, how weak we are! In the best roads we soon falter, in the smoothest paths we quickly stumble. These feeble knees of ours can scarcely support our tottering weight. A straw may throw us, and a pebble can wound us; we are mere children tremblingly taking our first steps in the walk of faith, our heavenly Father holds us by the arms or we should soon be down. Oh, if we are kept from falling, how must we bless the patient power which watches over us day by day! Think, how prone we are to sin, how apt to choose danger, how strong our tendency to cast ourselves down, and these reflections will make us sing more sweetly than we have ever done, ¡§Glory be to him, who is able to keep us from falling.¡¨ We have many foes who try to push us down. The road is rough and we are weak, but in addition to this, enemies lurk in ambush, who rush out when we least expect them, and labour to trip us up, or hurl us down the nearest precipice. Only an Almighty arm can preserve us from these unseen foes, who are seeking to destroy us. Such an arm is engaged for our defence. He is faithful that hath promised, and he is able to keep us from falling, so that with a deep sense of our utter weakness, we may cherish a firm belief in our perfect safety, and say, with joyful confidence,

¡§Against me earth and hell combine,

But on my side is power divine;

Jesus is all, and he is mine!¡¨

Evening, October 9

¡§But he answered her not a word.¡¨(Matthew 15:23)

Genuine seekers who as yet have not obtained the blessing, may take comfort from the story before us. The Saviour did not at once bestow the blessing, even though the woman had great faith in him. He intended to give it, but he waited awhile. ¡§He answered her not a word.¡¨ Were not her prayers good? Never better in the world. Was not her case needy? Sorrowfully needy. Did she not feel her need sufficiently? She felt it overwhelmingly. Was she not earnest enough? She was intensely so. Had she no faith? She had such a high degree of it that even Jesus wondered, and said, ¡§O woman, great is thy faith.¡¨ See then, although it is true that faith brings peace, yet it does not always bring it instantaneously. There may be certain reasons calling for the trial of faith, rather than the reward of faith. Genuine faith may be in the soul like a hidden seed, but as yet it may not have budded and blossomed into joy and peace. A painful silence from the Saviour is the grievous trial of many a seeking soul, but heavier still is the affliction of a harsh cutting reply such as this, ¡§It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.¡¨ Many in waiting upon the Lord find immediate delight, but this is not the case with all. Some, like the jailer, are in a moment turned from darkness to light, but others are plants of slower growth. A deeper sense of sin may be given to you instead of a sense of pardon, and in such a case you will have need of patience to bear the heavy blow. Ah! poor heart, though Christ beat and bruise thee, or even slay thee, trust him; though he should give thee an angry word, believe in the love of his heart. Do not, I beseech thee, give up seeking or trusting my Master, because thou hast not yet obtained the conscious joy which thou longest for. Cast thyself on him, and perseveringly depend even where thou canst not rejoicingly hope.