His Choice

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.  Every one of His arrows goes upon a special errand and touches no breast but his against whom it is sent.  It is not only the grace, but the glory of a believer when he can stand and take affliction quietly.                                                       Joseph Caryl

If all my days were sunny, could I say,

“In His fair land He wipes all tears away”?

 If I were never weary, could I keep

Close to my hear, “He gives His loved ones sleep”?

 Where no graves mine, might I not come to deem

The Life Eternal but a baseless dream?

 My winter, and my tears, and weariness,

Even my graves, may be His way to bless.

 I call them ills;  yet that can surely be

Nothing but love that shows my Lord to me!                                    Selected

Prayer

But prayer is the link that connects us with God.  This is the bridge that spans every gulf and bears me over every abyss of danger or of need.

How significant the picture of the apostolic church:  Peter in prison, the Jews triumphant, Herod supreme, the arena of martyrdom awaiting the dawning of the morning to drink up the apostle’s blood, and everything else against it.  “But prayer was made unto God without ceasing,”  And what was the sequel?  The prison open, the apostle free, the Jews baffled, the wicked king eaten of worms, a spectacle of hidden retribution, and the Word of God rolling on in greater victory.

Do we know the power of our supernatural weapon?  Do we dare to use it with the authority of a faith that commands as well as asks?  God baptizes us with holy audacity and divine confidence!  He is not wanting great men, but he is wanting men who will dare to prove the greatness of their God.  But God!  But prayer!                                                                                                                                                 A.B. Simpson

Beware in your prayer, above everything, of limiting God, not only bu unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do.  expect unexpected things, above all that we ask or think.  Each time you intercede, be quiet first and worship “God in His glory.

Source:  “ Streams in the Desert “   Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

Run with Patience

Let us run with patience (Heb. 12:1).

To run with patience is a very difficult thing.  Running is apt to suggest the absence of patience, the eagerness to reach the goal.  We commonly associate patience with lying down.  We think of it as the angel that guards the couch of the invalid.  Yet, I do not think the invalid’s  patience the hardest to achieve.

There is a patience which I believe to be harder—the patience that can run.  To lie down in the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke of adverse fortune, implies a great strength; but I know of something that implies a strength greater still;  It is the power to work under a stroke; to have a great weight at your heart and still to run; to have a deep anguish in your spirit and still perform the daily task.  It is a Christ like thing!

Many of us would nurse our grief without crying if we were allowed to nurse it.  the hard thing is that most of us are called to exercise our patience, not in bed, but in the street.  We are called to byr our sorrows not in lethargic quiescence, but in active service—in the exchange, in the workshop, in the hour of social intercourse, in the contribution to another’s joy.  There is no burial of sorrow so difficult as that; it is the “running with patience.”

This was Thy patience, O Son of man!  It was at once a waiting and a running—a waiting for the goal, and a doing of the lesser work meantime.  I see Thee at Cana turning the water into wine feeding a multitude with bread just to relieve a temporary want.  All, all the time, Thou went bearing a mighty grief, unshared, unspoken.  Men ask for a rainbow in the cloud; but I would ask more from Thee.  I would be, in my cloud, myself a rainbow—a minister to others’ joy.  My patience will be perfect when it can work in the vineyard.                                                                                                                      George Matheson

 

When all our hopes are gone,

‘Tis well our hands must keep toiling on

     For others’ sake:

For strength to bear is found in duty done;

And he is best indeed who learns to make

The joy of others cure his own heartache.

 

Source:    “Streams in the Desert”  Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

 

Rightful Place

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ . . . and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:4-6).

This is our rightful place, to be “sealed in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” and to “sit still” there.  but how few there are who make it their actual experience!  How few, indeed, think even that it is possible for them to “sit still” in these “heavenly places” in the everyday life of a world so full of turmoil as this.

We may believe perhaps that to pay a little visit to these heavenly places on Sundays, or now and then in times of spiritual exaltation, may be within the range of possibility, but to be actually “seated” there every day and all day long is altogether another matter, and yet it is very plain that it is for Sundays and weekdays as well.

A quiet spirit is of inestimable value in carrying on outward activities; and nothing so hinders the working of the hidden spiritual forces, upon which, after all, our success in everything really depends, as a spirit of unrest and anxiety.

There is immense power in stillness.  A great saint once said, “All things come to him who knows how to trust and be silent.”  The words are pregnant with meaning.  A knowledge of this fact would immensely change our ways of working.  Instead of restless struggles, we should “sit down” inwardly before the Lord, and would let the divine forces of His Spirit work out in silence the ends to which we aspire.  You may not see or feel the operations of this silent force, but be assured it is always working mightily, and will work for you, if you only get your spirit still enough to be carried along by the currents of its power.                                                                               Hannah Whitall Smith

There is a point of rest

At the great center of the cyclone’s force,

A silence at its secret source.

A little child might slumber undisturbed,

Without the ruffle of one fair curl,

In that strange, central calm, amid the mighty whirl.

It is your business to learn to be peaceful and safe in God in every situation.

The Banker

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name:  ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full (John 16:24).

During the Civil War, a man had an only son who enlisted in the armies of the Union.  The father was a banker and, although he consented to his son’s going, it seemed as if it would break his heart to let him go.

He became deeply interested in the soldier boys, and wherever he saw a uniform, his heart went out as he though of his own dear boy.  He spent his time, neglected his business, gave his money to caring for the soldiers who came home invalid.  His friends remonstrated with him, saying he had no right to neglect his business and spend so much thought upon the soldiers, so he fully decided to five it all up.

After he had come to this decision, there stepped into his bank one day a private soldier in a faded, worn uniform, who showed in his face and hands the marks of the hospital.

The poor fellow was fumbling in his pocket to get something or other, when the banker saw him and perceiving his purpose, said to him:

“My dear fellow, I cannot do anything for you today.  I am extremely busy.  You will have to go to your headquarters; the officers there will look after you.”

Still the poor convalescent stood not seeming to fully understand what was said to him.  Still he fumbled in his pockets and, by and by, drew out a scrap of dirty paper, on which there were a few lines written with a pencil, and laid this soiled sheet before the banker.  On it he found these words:

“Dear Father:  This is one of my comrades who was wounded in the last fight, and has been in the hospital.  Please receive him as myself.—Charlie.”

In a moment all the resolutions of indifference which this man made, flew away.  He took the boy to his palatial home, put him in Charlie’s room, gave him Charlie’s seat at the table, kept him until food and rest and love had brought him back to health, and then sent him back again to imperil his life for the flag.                                                                    

                                                                                                           Selected

“Now shalt thou SEE what I will do”  (Exod. 6:11).

 

Source:  “ The Streams in the Desert “  Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

Mystic Ladder

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.  And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush (Exod. 3:1-2).

The vision came in the midst of common toil, and that is what the Lord delights to give His revelations.  He seeks a man who is on the ordinary road, and the divine fire leaps out at his feet.  The mystic ladder can rise from the marketplace to heaven.  It can connect the realm of drudgery with the realms of grace.

My Father God, help me to expect Thee on the ordinary road.  I do not ask for sensational happenings.  Commune with me through ordinary work and duty.  Be my Companion when I take the common journey.  Let the humble life be transfigured by Thy presence.

Some Christians think they must be always up to mounts of extraordinary joy and revelation; this is not after God’s method.  Those spiritual visits to high places, and that wonderful intercourse with the unseen world, are not in the promises; the daily life of communion is.  And it is enough.  We shall have the exceptional revelation if it be right for us.

There were but three disciples allowed to see the Transfiguration, and those three entered the gloom of Gethsemane.  No one can stay on the mount of privilege.  There are duties in the valley.  Christ found His life-work, not in the glory, but in the valley and was there truly and fully the Messiah.  The value of the vision and glory is but their gift of fitness for work and endurance.     

                                                                                                                                 Selected

 

Source:  “ The Streams in the Desert “  Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

Great Substance

Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs; . . .they shall afflict them four hundred years . . . and afterwards they shall come out with great substance (Gen. 15:13+14).

An assured part of God’s pledged blessing to us is delay and suffering.  A delay in Abraham’s own lifetime that seemed to put God’s pledge beyond fulfillment was followed by seemingly unendurable delay of Abram’s descendants.  But it was only a delay:  they “came out with great substance.”  The pledge was redeemed.

God is going to test me with delays; and with the delays will come suffering, but through it all stands God’s pledge;  His new covenant with me in Christ, and His inviolable promise of every lesser blessing that I need.  The delay and the suffering are part of the promised blessing;  let me praise Him for them today; an d let me wait on the Lord and be of good courage and He will strengthen my heart.                                                                        C.G. Trumbull

 

Unanswered yet the prayer your lips have pleaded

In agony of heart theses many years?

Does faith begin to fail?  Is hope departing?

And think you all in vain those failing tears/

Say not the Father hath not heard your prayer;

You shall have your desire sometime, somewhere.

 

Unanswered yet? Nay do not say ungranted;

Perhaps your work is not yet wholly done.

The work began when first your prayer was uttered,

And God will finish what He has begun,

If you will keep the incense burning there,

His glory you shall see sometime, somewhere.

 

Unanswered yet?  Faith cannot be unanswered,

Her feet are firmly planted on the Rock;

Amid the wildest storms she stands undaunted,

Nor quails before the loudest thunder shock,

She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer,

And cries, “It shall be don’t”—sometime, somewhere.

                                                                                             Miss Ophella g. Browning

 

Source:  ” Streams in the Desert “  Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

Purity

By reason of breakings they purify themselves (Job 41:25).

God uses most for His glory those people and things which are most perfectly broken.  The sacrifices He accepts are broken and contrite hearts.  It was the breaking down of Jacob’s natural strength at Peniel that got him where God could clothe him with spiritual power.  It was breaking the surface of the rock at Horeh, by the stroke of Moses’ rod, that let out the cool waters to thirsty people.

It was when the three hundred elect soldiers under “Gideon broke their pitchers, a type of breaking themselves, that the hidden lights shone forth to the consternation of their adversaries.  It was when the poor widow broke the seal of the little pot of oil, and poured it forth, that God multiplied it to pay her debts and supply means of support.

It was when Esther risked her life and broke through the rigid etiquette of a heathen court, that she obtained favor to rescue her people from death.  It was when Jesus took the live loaves and broke them, that the bread was multiplied in the very act of breaking, sufficient to feed five thousand.  It was when Mary broke her beautiful alabaster box, rendering it henceforth useless, that the pent-up perfume filled the house.  It was when Jesus allowed His precious body to be broken to pieces by thorns and nails and spear, that His inner life was poured out,  like a crystal ocean, for thirsty sinners to drink and live.

It is when a beautiful grain of corn is broken up in the earth by DEATH, that its inner heart sprouts forth and bears hundreds of other grains.  And thus, on and on, through history, and all biography, and all vegetation, and all spiritual life, God must have BROKEN THINGS.

Those who are broken in wealth, and broken in self-will, and broken in their ambitions, and broken in their affections, and broken ofttimes in health;  those who are despise and seem utterly forlorn and helpless, the Holy Ghost is seizing upon, and using for God’s glory.  “The lame take the prey,” Isaiah tells us.

 

O break my heart; but break it as a field

Is by the plough up-broken for the corn;

O break it as the buds, by green leaf sealed,

Are, to unloose the golden blossom, torn;

Love would I offer unto Love’s great master,

Set free the odor, break the alabaster.

 

O break my heart; break it victorious God,

That life’s eternal well may flash abroad;

O let it break as when the captive trees,

Breaking cold bonds, regain their liberties;

And as thought sacred grove to life is springing,

Be joys, like birds, their hope, thy victory singing.

                                                                                                  Thomas Toke Bunch

 

Source:  ” Streams in the Desert “   Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

Fret Not

Fret not (Ps. 37:1)

This to me is a divine command; the same as “Thou shalt not steal.”  Now let us get to the definition of fretting.  One good definition is, “Made rough on the surface.”  “Rubbed, or worn away”; and a peevish, irrational, fault-finding person not only wear himself out, but is very wearing to others.  To fret is to be in a state of vexation, and in this psalm we are not only told not to fret because of evildoers, but to fret not “in anywise,”  It is injurious, and God does not want us to hurt ourselves.

A physician will tell you that a fit of anger is more injurious to the system than a fever, and fretful disposition is not conducive to a healthy body; and you know rules are apt to work both ways, and the next step down from fretting is crossness, and that amounts to anger.  Let us settle this matter, and be obedient to the command, “Fret not.”                                                         Margaret Bottome

 

OVERHEARD IN AN ORCHARD

Said the Robin to the Sparrow:

“I should really like to know

Why these anxious human beings

Rush about and worry so.”

 

Said the Sparrow to the Robin:

“Friend, I think that it must be

That they have no Heavenly Father

Such as cares for you and me.”

                                                                                                                    Elizabeth Cheney

The Giver

It come to pass . . . that the brook dried up (1 Kings 17:7).

The education of our faith is incomplete if we have not learned that there is a providence of loss, and a ministry of falling and of fading things, a gift of emptiness.  The material insecurities of life make for its spiritual establishment.  The dwindling stream by which Elijah sat and mused is a true picture of the life of each of us.  “It came to pass . . .that the brook dried up” ~ that is the history of our yesterday, and a prophecy of our morrows.

In some way or other we will have to learn the difference between trusting in the gift and Tustin in the Giver.  The gift may be good for a while, but the Giver is the eternal love.

Cherith was a difficult problem to Elijah until he got to Zarephath, and then it was all as clear as daylight.  God’s hard words are never His last words.  The woe and the waste and the tears of life belong to the interlude and not to the finale.

Had Elijah been led straight to Zarephath he would have missed something that helped to make him a wiser prophet and a better man.  He lived by faith at Cherith.  And whensoever in your life and  some spring of earthly and outward resource has dried up, it has been that we might learn that our hope and help are in God who made heaven and earth.

 

Perchance thou, too, hast camped by such sweet waters,

And quenched. with joy thy weary, parched soul’s thirst;

To find, as time goes on, thy streamiest alters

From what it was at first.

 

Hearts that have cheered, or soothed, or blest, or strengthened;

Loves that have lavished so unstintedly;

Joys, treasured joys—have passed, as time hath lengthened,

Into obscurity.

 

If thus, ah soul, the brook thy heart hath cherished

Doth fail thee now—no more thy thirst assuage—

If its once glad refreshing streams have perished,

Let HIM thy heart engage.

 

He will not fail, nor mock, nor disappoint thee;

His consolations change not with the years;

With oil of joy He surely will anoint thee,

And wipe away thy tears.                                

                                                                                                             J. Donson Smith