The Discipline of Faith "All things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23).
The "all things" do not always come simply for the asking, for the reason that God is ever seeking to teach us the way of faith, and in our training in the faith life there must be room for the trial of faith, the discipline of faith, the patience of faith, the courage of faith, an ...read
The Eagle That Soars "Feed on his faithfulness" (Ps. 37:3, RV).
I once met a poor colored woman, who earned a precarious living by hard daily labor; but who was a joyous triumphant Christian. "Ah, Nancy," said a gloomy Christian lady to her one day, "it is well enough to be happy now; but I should think the thoughts of your future would sober you.
"Only sup ...read
The End Of Our Strength "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20:29).
How strong is the snare of the things that are seen, and how necessary for God to keep us in the things that axe unseen! If Peter is to walk on the water he must walk; if he is going to swim, he must swim, but he cannot do both. If the bird is going to fly it must keep ...read
The Father's Hand "Your heavenly Father knoweth" (Matt. 6:32).
A visitor at a school for the deaf and dumb was writing questions on the blackboard for the children. By and by he wrote this sentence: "Why has God made me to hear and speak, and made you deaf and dumb?"
The awful sentence fell upon the little ones like a fierce blow in the face. They sat pals ...read
The Fiery Furnace "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ" (2 Cor. 2:14).
God gets His greatest victories out of apparent defeats. Very often the enemy seems to triumph for a little, and God lets it be so; but then He comes in and upsets all the work of the enemy, overthrows the apparent victory, and as the Bible says, "turns the ...read
The Friend of God "Abraham stood yet before the Lord" (Gen. 18:22).
The friend of God can plead with Him for others. Perhaps Abraham's height of faith and friendship seems beyond our little possibilities. Do not be discouraged, Abraham grew; so may we. He went step by step, not by great leaps.
The man whose faith has been deeply tested and who has come off ...read
The Fruit Comes Afterward "The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and storm" (Nahum 1:3).
I recollect, when a lad, and while attending a classical institute in the vicinity of Mount Pleasant, sitting on an elevation of that mountain, and watching a storm as it came up the valley. The heavens were filled with blackness, and the earth was shaken by the voice of thunder. ...read
The Greatest Pains "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten" (Rev. 3:19).
God takes the most eminent and choicest of His servants for the choicest and most eminent afflictions. They who have received most grace from God are able to bear most afflictions from God. Affliction does not hit the saint by chance, but by direction. God does not draw His bow at a venture ...read
The Harp "I am jealous over you with God's own jealousy" (2 Cor. 11:2) Weymouth
How an old harper dotes on his harp! How he fondles and caresses it, as a child resting on his bosom! His life is bound up in it. But, see him tuning it. He grasps it firmly, strikes a chord with a sharp, quick blow; and while it quivers as if in pain, he leans over intent ...read
The Just Shall Live by Faith "The just shall live by faith." (Heb. 10:38).
Seemings and feelings are often substituted for faith. Pleasurable emotions and deep satisfying experiences are part of the Christian life, but they are not all of it. Trials, conflicts, battles and testings lie along the way, and are not to be counted as misfortunes, but rather as part of our nece ...read
The Key to the Wind "The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all" (Ps. 103:19).
Some time since, in the early spring, I was going out at my door when round the corner came a blast of east wind--defiant and pitiless, fierce and withering--sending a cloud of dust before it.
I was just taking the latchkey from the door as I s ...read
The Lightest Cross "And he went out carrying his own cross" (John 19:17).
There is a poem called "The Changed Cross." It represents a weary one who thought that her cross was surely heavier than those of others whom she saw about her, and she wished that she might choose an other instead of her own. She slept, and in her dream she was led to a place where man ...read
The Living God "O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee" (Dan. 6:20).
How many times we find this expression in the Scriptures, and yet it is just this very thing that we are so prone to lose sight of. We know it is written "the living God"; but in our daily life there is scarcely anything we prac ...read
The Lord is My Strength "The Lord hath sent strength for thee" (Ps. 68.28, PBV).
The Lord imparts unto us that primary strength of character which makes everything in life work with intensity and decision. We are "strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man." And the strength is continuous; reserves of power come to us which we cannot exhaust.
"As th ...read
The Lord's Times "Thou makest the outgoing of the morning and evening to rejoice" (Ps. 65:8).
Get up early and go to the mountain and watch God make a morning. The dull gray will give way as God pushes the sun towards the horizon, and there will be tints and hues of every shade, that will blend into one perfect light as the full-orbed sun bursts into view. As ...read
The Mountain After the Quake "He maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth and his hands make whole" (Job 5:18).
The ministry of a great sorrow.
As we pass beneath the hills which have been shaken by the earthquake and torn by convulsion, we find that periods of perfect repose succeed those of destruction. The pools of calm water lie clear beneath their fallen rocks, th ...read
The Old Refiner "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver" (Mal. 3:3).
Our Father, who seeks to perfect His saints in holiness, knows the value of the refiner's fire. It is with the most precious metals that the assayer takes the most pains, and subjects them to the hot fire, because such fires melt the metal, and only the molten mass releases i ...read
The Path to Blessing "To him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon because he hath wholly followed the Lord" (Deut. 1:36).
Every hard duty that lies in your path, that you would rather not do, that it will cost you pain and struggle or sore effort to do, has a blessing in it. Not to do it, at whatever cost, is to miss the blessing.
Every hard piece of ...read
The Power of Silence "Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10).
Is there any note of music in all the chorus as mighty as the emphatic pause? Is there any word in all the Psalter more eloquent than that one word, Selah (Pause)? Is there anything more thrilling and awful than the hush that comes before the bursting of the tempest and the strange quiet that see ...read
The Prayer of Faith "God that cannot lie promised" (Titus 1:2).
Faith is not working up by will power a sort of certainty that something is coming to pass, but it is seeing as an actual fact that God has said that this thing shall come to pass, and that it is true, and then rejoicing to know that it is true, and just resting because God has said it.
Faith turn ...read
Mrs. Charles E. Cowman