Open My Eyes

"Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see" (2 Kings 6:17).

This is the prayer we need to pray for ourselves and for one another, "Lord, open our eyes that we may see"; for the world all around us, as well as around the prophet, is full of God's horses and chariots, waiting to carry us to places of glorious victory. And when our eyes are thus opened, we shall see in all events of life, whether great or small, whether joyful or sad, a "chariot" for our souls.

Everything that comes to us becomes a chariot the moment we treat it as such; and, on the other hand, even the smallest trial may be a Juggernaut car to crush us into misery or despair if we consider it.

It lies with each of us to choose which they shall be. It all depends, not upon what these events are, but upon how we take them. If we lie down under them, and let them roll over us and crush us, they become Juggernaut cars, but if we climb up into them, as into a car of victory, and make them carry us triumphantly onward and upward, they become the chariots of God. --Hannah Whitall Smith

The Lord cannot do much with a crushed soul, hence the adversary's attempt to push the Lord's people into despair and hopelessness over the condition of themselves, or of the church. It has often been said that a dispirited army goes forth to battle with the certainty of being beaten. We heard a missionary say recently that she had been invalided home purely because her spirit had fainted, with the consequence that her body sunk also. We need to understand more of these attacks of the enemy upon our spirits and how to resist them. If the enemy can dislodge us from our position, then he seeks to "wear us out" (Daniel 7:25) by a prolonged siege, so that at last we, out of sheer weakness, let go the cry of victory.

THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH

"The Lord appeared to Abraham, and said unto him: 'I am God Almighty: walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I wilt multiply thee exceedingly.'"¡XGEN. xvii. 1, 2.

In Abraham we see how God not only asks for faith, and rewards faith, but also how He works faith by the gracious training that He gives. When God first called him, He at once gave the great promise, "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. xii. 3). When he reached the land, God met him with the promise that the land should be his (Gen. xii. 7). When Abraham returned from the battle against the kings, God again met him to renew the promise (xv. 5). Before the birth of Isaac, in the words of our text, He sought to strengthen his faith (Gen. xvii.). And once more in the plains of Mamre, He spoke: "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Step by step God led him until his faith was perfected for full obedience in the sacrifice of Isaac. As "by faith Abraham obeyed to go out," so by faith, at the close of forty years, he was able, without any promise, in fact in apparent conflict with all the promises to obey God's will to the very uttermost.

Children of Abraham, children of God, the Father makes great demands on your faith. If you are to follow in Abraham's footsteeps, you too are to forsake all, to live in the land of spiritual promise, with nothing but His word to depend upon, separated unto God. For this you will need a deep and clear insight that the God Who is working in you is the Almighty Who will work all His good pleasure. Do not think that it is a little thing and easy, to live the life of faith. It needs a life that seeks to abide in His presence all the day. Bow before God in humble worship, until He speaks to you too: "I am God Almighty: walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will multiply thee exceedingly." When Abraham heard this, he "fell on his face: and God talked with him." There you have the secret birthplace of the power to trust God for everything that He promises.

In this little book we desire to find out what the power of faith is, and what God is willing to work, "according to the exceeding greatness of His power in us who believe." So only can we go out like Abraham when we are called to a life of true consecration to God, and of the obedience of faith to the very uttermost. Walk in the footsteps of Abraham. Hide deep in your heart the testimony of God's Word: "He was strong in faith, giving glory to God; being fully persuaded, that what He had promised, He was able to perform."

God's Hornets

"And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee"(Exodus 23:28).

What the hornets were we need not consider. They were God's own army which He sent before His people to sting their enemies and render Israel's conquest easy. Our God by His own chosen means will fight for His people and gall their foes before they come into the actual battle. Often He confounds the adversaries of truth by methods in which reformers themselves have no hand. The air is full of mysterious influences which harass Israel's foes. We read in the Apocalypse that "the earth helped the woman."

Let us never fear. The stars in their courses fight against the enemies of our souls. Oftentimes when we march to the conflict we find no host to contend with. "The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." God's hornets can do more than our weapons. We could never dream of the victory being won by such means as Jehovah will use. We must obey our marching orders and go forth to the conquest of the nations for Jesus, and we shall find that the LORD has gone before us and prepared the way; so that in the end we will joyfully confess, "His own right hand and his holy arm, have gotten him the victory."

Morning, April 4

¡§For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.¡¨(2 Corinthians 5:21)

Mourning Christian! why weepest thou? Art thou mourning over thine own corruptions? Look to thy perfect Lord, and remember, thou art complete in him; thou art in God's sight as perfect as if thou hadst never sinned; nay, more than that, the Lord our Righteousness hath put a divine garment upon thee, so that thou hast more than the righteousness of man¡Xthou hast the righteousness of God. O thou who art mourning by reason of inbred sin and depravity, remember, none of thy sins can condemn thee. Thou hast learned to hate sin; but thou hast learned also to know that sin is not thine¡Xit was laid upon Christ's head. Thy standing is not in thyself¡Xit is in Christ; thine acceptance is not in thyself, but in thy Lord; thou art as much accepted of God to-day, with all thy sinfulness, as thou wilt be when thou standest before his throne, free from all corruption. O, I beseech thee, lay hold on this precious thought, perfection in Christ! For thou art ¡§complete in him.¡¨ With thy Saviour's garment on, thou art holy as the Holy one. ¡§Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.¡¨ Christian, let thy heart rejoice, for thou art ¡§accepted in the beloved¡¨¡Xwhat hast thou to fear? Let thy face ever wear a smile; live near thy Master; live in the suburbs of the Celestial City; for soon, when thy time has come, thou shalt rise up where thy Jesus sits, and reign at his right hand; and all this because the divine Lord ¡§was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.¡¨

Evening, April 4

¡§Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.¡¨(Isaiah 2:3)

It is exceedingly beneficial to our souls to mount above this present evil world to something nobler and better. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches are apt to choke everything good within us, and we grow fretful, desponding, perhaps proud and carnal. It is well for us to cut down these thorns and briers, for heavenly seed sown among them is not likely to yield a harvest; and where shall we find a better sickle with which to cut them down than communion with God and the things of the kingdom? In the valleys of Switzerland many of the inhabitants are deformed, and all wear a sickly appearance, for the atmosphere is charged with miasma, and is close and stagnant; but up yonder, on the mountain, you find a hardy race, who breathe the clear fresh air as it blows from the virgin snows of the Alpine summits. It would be well if the dwellers in the valley could frequently leave their abodes among the marshes and the fever mists, and inhale the bracing element upon the hills. It is to such an exploit of climbing that I invite you this evening. May the Spirit of God assist us to leave the mists of fear and the fevers of anxiety, and all the ills which gather in this valley of earth, and to ascend the mountains of anticipated joy and blessedness. May God the Holy Spirit cut the cords that keep us here below, and assist us to mount! We sit too often like chained eagles fastened to the rock, only that, unlike the eagle, we begin to love our chain, and would, perhaps, if it came really to the test, be loath to have it snapped. May God now grant us grace, if we cannot escape from the chain as to our flesh, yet to do so as to our spirits; and leaving the body, like a servant, at the foot of the hill, may our soul, like Abraham, attain the top of the mountain, there to indulge in communion with the Most High.