Holy Covetousness 'Covet earnestly the best gifts,' wrote Paul to his Officers and Soldiers at Corinth. Not the highest promotions, not the best positions, but 'the best gifts,' those gifts which God bestows upon the people who earnestly covet them and diligently seek Him.
Nero sat upon the throne of the world; he held the highest position in the reach of ma ...read
How A Nobody Became A Somebody It is one of the shortest, simplest stories ever heard, and yet one of the sweetest and most wonderful, as told by Luke.
Jesus had been across the little sea and had cast a legion of devils out of a poor fellow. The devils, by His permission, went into a big herd of swine, and the swine rushed off down a precipice and drowned themselves in the ...read
How To Get Holiness God never raises a crop of potatoes or a field of wheat or a bushel of oats without man's help. He takes men into partnership with Him in such matters, He furnishes the sunshine and the air, the rain and the dew, the day and the night, the fruitful seasons, the busy, burrowing little earthworms and insects which keep the lungs of the earth open so ...read
How To Keep A Clean Heart It is possible to lose the blessing of a clean heart, but, thank God, it is also gloriously possible to keep it. How to do this is a vital question. Two or three years ago, a brother, going to the foreign field, arose in one of my meetings and said, 'I got the blessing three times but lost it twice. The third time I got it the Lord taught me how t ...read
How To Keep Holiness Do you ask, 'How can I keep the blessing?'
1. Do not let your poor heart be burdened with the thought that you have to do it all yourself. In this, as in all else, you are only a worker together with God. He loves you more than a mother loves her little child, and He is going to help you to keep the blessing. Remember that the blessing is sim ...read
How To Prepare For The Meeting A long time ago, St. Luke tells us when Jesus was a boy of twelve, He went with His parents and neighbors up to Jerusalem to the Feast of the Passover. On the return of the company, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem. 'And Joseph and His mother knew not of it. But they, supposing Him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and ...read
How To Study The Bible The other day I received a letter from a young Officer asking for a few suggestions as to how to read and study the Bible. Here they are:
I. Read and study it as two young lovers read and study each other's letters. As soon as the mail brings a letter from his sweetheart, the young man grabs it and without waiting to see if there is not anothe ...read
I Counted...And I Count The Apostle Paul, in his young and fiery manhood, was on the way to Damascus, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples,' when Jesus met him and won his heart; and from that day Paul counted all things loss for Christ. He made an unconditional surrender, and found such loveliness and grace in Jesus that he lost his heart to Hi ...read
If You Have Lost The Blessing -- What? "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God... and ye have not obeyed My voice. Return ... and I will not cause Mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever" (Jer. iii. 14, 13, 1 ...read
Importance And Benefits Of Bible Study If someone had written a book so small that it could be carried in the pocket, and so cheap that the poorest could buy it, and if this book explained simply how anyone who followed its directions could surely, without any danger to themselves or others, gain the highest possible honors, the greatest riches, the supremest joy, all linked with long l ...read
In God's School Man is the supreme product in this world, and the struggle with adversity and evil forces is a part of God's plan of developing him for mansions and thrones and crowns and kingdoms in the world to come. Therefore we must believe and hope and love and struggle on. 'For in due season we shall reap, if we faint not' (Gal. vi. 9). We must beware of ...read
Jesus -- The Working Man Peter the Great, Czar of all Russia, and in some respects the mightiest monarch of his day, used to make shoes like a common cobbler, that he might enter into sympathy with his people and help them to realize that labour is not menial, but honorable and full of dignity. It was a great stoop from the throne of Russia to a cobbler's bench, but I wil ...read
Jesus Training Paul We learn from the Gospels how Jesus, in the days of His flesh, trained the twelve. We learn from the Acts and Paul's Epistles how the risen and glorified Jesus trained Paul.
This paper is a fragmentary study of that training and of some of Paul's struggles, inner conflicts, and fears out of and through which he was trained to triumph by obedi ...read
Keeping The Flock The soul-winner must give much time and thought and prayer and effort to keep and strengthen his converts. He ought to say with Paul, "Now we live if ye stand fast," and again like Paul he should pray "night and day exceedingly that we might perfect that which is lacking in your faith." (1 Thess. 3:8, 10.) Paul's ambition was not simply to get ...read
King David's Use Of His Bible David said, "Princes also did sit and speak against me; but Thy servant did meditate in Thy statutes. Thy testimonies are also my delight and my counsellors." (Psalm 119:23, 24)
What a picture! Evil men are plotting against him, digging a pit for him, gnashing on him with their teeth, but he sits quietly meditating on God's statutes. These s ...read
Knowing Jesus What an astonishing thing that we can know Jesus! And yet nothing is more clearly taught in Scripture or more joyously testified to in experience by godly people than this fact.
This is an age of specialists, when men devote their lives to the pursuit of special departments of knowledge. One learned professor will give fourteen hours a day for ...read
Letting The Truth Slip "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip" (Heb. iii. 1).
The truth that saves the soul is not picked up as we would pick up the pebbles along the beach, but it is obtained rather as gold and silver, after diligent search and much digging. Solomon says: "If t ...read
Love Slaves There was a law among the Hebrews that for sore poverty or debt or crime one man might become the servant of another, but he could not be held in servitude beyond a certain period; at the end of six years, he must be allowed to go free. (Ex. 21:1-6; Deut. 15:12-17). But if he loved his master and preferred to remain with him as his slave, then the ...read
Maintaining The Holiness Standard The Salvation Army was born, not in a cloister, nor in a drawing-room, but on a spiritual battlefield -- at the penitent-form. It has been nourished for spiritual conquests, not upon speculative doctrines and fine-spun verbal distinctions, but upon those great doctrines which can be wrought into and worked out in soul-satisfying experience. Hence, ...read
Misrepresenting God
I read recently of a speaker who preached on the mercy of God 'until it seemed there was nothing in God but mercy.' But I fear he misrepresented God. Such misrepresentation is easy, and to people who do not think deeply, and who do not want to take life seriously, it is pleasant, but it is unspeakably dangerous.
If we are to win souls and s ...read
