By
William Fleming Stevenson D.D.
Life and
Letters of William Fleming Stevenson D.D.
By his wife (1890) (pdf)
Morning Worship
OUR heavenly Father, who didst not spare Thine own Son, but
didst give Him up for us all, and with Him freely givest us all
things; grant us at this time, we beseech Thee, the illumination
of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may find Thee in Thy word, worthily
worship Thee by our service, and by faith embrace Jesus Christ
our only Lord and Saviour. Amen.
HYMN, or Psalm cxviii. 24-29.
THIS is the day the Lord hath made,
He calls the hours his own;
Let heaven rejoice, let earth be glad,
And praise surround the throne.
To-day he rose and left the dead
And Satan’s empire fell;
To-day the saints his triumphs spread,
And all his wonders tell.
Hosanna to the anointed King,
To David’s holy Son!
Help us, O Lord! descend and bring
Salvation from Thy throne.
Blest be the Lord who comes to men
With messages of grace
Who comes, in God his Father’s name.
To save our sinful race.
Hosanna in the highest strains,
The church on earth can raise;
The highest heavens, in which he reigns,
Shall give him nobler praise.
PSALM LI.
HAVE mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my
transgressions. 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and
cleanse me from my sin. 3. For I acknowledge my transgression:
and my sin is ever before me. 4. Against thee, thee only, have I
sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be
justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. 5.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother
conceive me. 6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:
and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. 7.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean, wash me, and I shall
be whiter than snow. 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that
the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 9. Hide thy face
from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. 10. Create in me
a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold
me with thy free Spirit. 13. Then will I teach transgressors thy
ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. 14. Deliver me
from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my
tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. 15. O Lord, open
thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. 16. For
thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it; thou
delightest not in burnt offering. 17. The sacrifices of God are
a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt
not despise. 18. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build
thou the walls of Jerusalem. 19. Then shalt thou be pleased with
the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole
burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
PSALM XXXII.
BLESSED is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is
covered. 2. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not
iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. 3. When I kept
silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all day long: 4.
For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is
turned into the drought of summer. 5. I acknowledged my sin unto
thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess
my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity
of my sin. 6. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto
thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods
of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. 7. Thou art
my hiding-place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt
compass me about with songs of deliverance. 8. I will instruct
thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will
guide thee with mine eye. 9. Be ye not as the horse, or as the
mule, which have no understanding; whose mouth must be held in
with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. 10. Many
sorrows shall be to the wicked but he that trusteth in the Lord,
mercy shall compass him about. 11. Be glad in the Lord, and
rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are
upright in heart.
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Prayer.
ALMIGHTY and most merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ and our Father, we give Thee our most hearty thanks for
all Thy love and goodness; and we praise Thee and worship Thee
the Father everlasting. Though thou dwellest in in the light
that is inaccessible and full of glory, we know Thou carest for
us, and that thy thoughts are to us-ward. We know Thy holiness
and Thy power and Thy goodness, and that to Thee all angels cry
aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein; but we know Thee
through Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent, and that Thou art not
far from any one of us, but like as a father Thou dost pity us,
and knowest our frame, and rememberest that we are dust. We
beseech Thee, who dwellest in the heaven of heavens, to hear us
when we pray.
We thank Thee for this day of Thine, its peace, worship,
and blessings; and that there is now, and remaineth, a rest for
the people of God. May we rest from our sins in Thy
forgiveness, from our works to do Thine, from our weariness and
care in Thy love, and may the peace which passeth all
understanding keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
We thank Thee for Thy word and sacraments, and that Thou dost
not only give us our daily bread, but the living bread of heaven
for our souls. Grant that Thy word may abide in our hearts,
that thereby we, Thine unworthy servants, may be comforted,
edified, and built up in our most holy faith. We thank Thee for
the church on earth, for all pastors and teachers, for the
communion of saints, and for the presence of Jesus. Mercifully
grant us to abide in the Lord, rooted and grounded in love, and
abounding in charity to the whole body of Christ; and that the
word preached may profit, being mixed with faith in them that
hear it. We thank thee for the light that shineth in our
darkness, for the life Thou hast quickened in our death, for the
joy that gladdens us in sorrow, for the means of grace and for
the hope of glory. We thank Thee for the care of our bodies,
for our food and raiment, for health and happiness, for our home
and our friends, for relief in sickness, and succour in
adversity, and for all the blessings of this life. We thank
Thee above all for Thy dear Son, that Thou didst not spare him,
but didst freely give Him up for us, that He is the propitiation
for our sins, and for the sins of the whole world, and that He
ever liveth to make intercession for us.
We beseech Thee O Father, for His sake who is our
merciful and patient Saviour, that Thou wilt forgive us our
wrong-doing and wrong-thinking, our negligence and ignorance,
and all our faults. If Thou wert only strict to mark iniquity,
we could not come before Thee; for our iniquities are countless
and grievous, and Thou abhorrest and punishest sin, and we know
Thou art just. We come to Thee for pardon. Have mercy upon us,
O God, according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out
our transgressions. Remember not the sins of our youth;
according to Thy mercy remember Thou us, for Thy goodness’ sake,
O Lord. Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity, and cleanse us
from our sin. Help us to believe in the great sacrifice of
Christ our passover, and that we have redemption through his
blood. Help us to conceive Thy holiness. May Thy grace
strengthen us against temptation and an evil heart of unbelief;
may we fight down the world, the flesh, and the devil; may we be
full of faith and the Holy Ghost. Keep us in communion with
Thee, that by the Spirit of adoption we may receive witness we
are Thy children, that we may approach Thee with open hearts,
and trust Thee and love Thee as our Father.
We carry Thy treasure in earthen vessels, O Lord;
sanctify us, and preserve it from the soil of sin. We are weak
and helpless, and our trials and infirmities are many: we look
with all confidence to Thee that it may please Thee to give us
the victory over ourselves. Support us here by Thy grace, and
hereafter reveal to us Thy glory. Send us Thy light and Thy
truth, that they may guide us to Thy holy hill.
We pray for the good estate of Thy church, that it may
please Thee daily to call into it such as shall be saved; to
preserve it from false doctrine, heresy, and schism; to lead
back to Thee those that have erred or are deceived, and to grant
that all Christians may live in unity, peace, and concord. We
pray that Thy will may be done in earth, as it is in heaven,
that the gospel may be preached unto all nations, that the ends
of the earth may see the salvation of our God, that it may
please Thee to further all good, and to make Thy people fruitful
in works of faith and labours of love.
We pray Thee, whose throne is above all thrones, that
thou wilt preserve to us righteous and Christian government, and
wilt grant peace in our day; that as Thou wast with our fathers,
Thou wilt be with us, and wilt bless our country with pure
religion, wise administration, and prosperous commerce. Bless,
O Lord, the Queen, that she may be crowned with Thy favour,
supported by Thy grace, and trust in the King of kings and Lord
of lords. And grant, O most merciful Father, that we may live
in Thy fear, die in Thy peace, be raised at the last day by Thy
power, and may thereafter inherit Thy kingdom, where, with the
angels and Thy holy elect, we shall worship and magnify Thee
through all eternity in the name of Thy dear Son, Jesus Christ,
our Saviour. Amen.
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THE
CHURCH IN THE HOUSE.
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hast called us to be Thy
children, and to walk in the footsteps of Thy dear Son, our
Saviour; grant us child-like, faithful, and obedient hearts,
that we may truly follow Him, and may walk before Thee in love,
and in the communion of the Holy Ghost, who, with Thee and our
Lord Jesus Christ, ever abideth one God, unto whom be glory for
ever. Our Father, who art in Heaven, &c.
HYMN, or Psalm cxvi. 1-7.
WHEN along life’s thorny road
Faints the soul beneath its load,
By its care and sin opprest,
Finds on earth no peace or rest;
When the wily tempter’s near,
Filling us with doubt and fear;
Jesus, to thy feet we flee,
Jesus, we will look to Thee.
Thou, our Saviour, from thy throne
Listenest to thy people’s moan,
Thou, the living Head, dost share
Every pang thy members bear:
Full of tenderness Thou art,
Thou wilt heal the broken heart;
Full of power, thine arm shall quell
All the rage and might of hell.
By thy tears o’er Lazarus shed,
By thy power to raise the dead
By thy meekness under scorn,
By thy stripes and crown of thorns,
By that rich and precious blood,
That hath made our peace with God,
Jesus, to thy feet we flee,
Jesus, we will cling to Thee.
Mighty to redeem and save,
Thou hast overcome the grave;
Thou the bars of death hast riven,
Opened wide the gates of heaven.
Soon in glory Thou shalt come
Taking thy poor pilgrims home;
Jesus then we all shall be,
Ever, ever, Lord, with Thee.
GENESIS XVIII.
AND the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he
sat in the tent-door in the heat of the day; 2. And he lifted up
his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and, when
he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent-door, and bowed
himself toward the ground, 3. And said, My Lord, if now I have
found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy
servant. 4. Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash
your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: 5. And I will
fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that
ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant.
And they said, So do as thou hast said. 6. And Abraham hastened
into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three
measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.
7. And Abraham ran unto the heard, and fetched a calf tender and
good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it.
8. And he took butter and milk, and the calf which he had
dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the
tree, and they did eat. 9. And they said unto him, Where is
Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. 10. And he
said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of
life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard
it in the tent-door, which was behind him. 11. Now Abraham and
Sarah were old, and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be
with Sarah after the manner of women. 12. Therefore Sarah
laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I
have pleasure, my lord being old also? And the Lord said unto
Abraham, wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety
bear a child, which am old? 14. Is any thing too hard for the
Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according
to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. 15. Then Sarah
denied, saying, I laughed not: for she was afraid. And he said,
Nay; but thou didst laugh. 16. And the men rose up from thence
and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them, to bring
them on the way. 17. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from
Abraham that thing which I do; 18. Seeing that Abraham shall
surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of
the earth shall be blessed in him? 19. For I know him, that he
will command his children and his household after him, and they
shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that
the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of
him. 20. And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and
Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, 21. I
will go down now and see whether they have done altogether
according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I
will know. 22. And the men turned their faces toward Sodom: but
Abraham stood yet before the Lord. 23. And Abraham drew near,
and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
24. Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt
thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty
righteous that are therein? 25. That be far from thee to do
after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and
that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from
thee. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? 26. And
the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the
city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. 27. And
Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to
speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes; 28.
Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt
thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I
find forty and five I will not destroy it. 29. And he spake
unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty
found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty’s sake.
30. And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I
will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And
he said, I will not do it if I find thirty there. 31. And he
said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord:
Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I
will not destroy it for twenty’s sake. 32. And he said, Oh let
not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once:
Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not
destroy it for ten’s sake. 33. And the Lord went his way, as
soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned
to his place.
PHILIPPIANS IV. 1-13.
THEREFORE, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy
and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. 2. I
beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same
mind in the Lord. 3. And I entreat thee also, true yoke-fellow,
help those women that laboured with me in the gospel, with
Clement also, and with other my fellow-labourers, whose names
are in the book of life. 4. Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again
I say, Rejoice. 5. Let your moderation be known unto all men.
The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing: but in every thing
by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known unto God. 7. And the peace which passeth
understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus. 8. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue,
and if there be any praise think on these things. 9. Those
things, which ye have both learned and received, and heard, and
seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you. 10. But
I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, and now at the last your care of
me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye
lacked opportunity. 11. Not that I speak in respect of want: for
I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be
content. 12. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to
abound: every where, and in all things, I am instructed both to
be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
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SERMON XX.
“AND HE WENT ON HIS JOURNEYS FROM THE SOUTH EVEN TO BETH-EL,
UNTO THE PLACE WHERE HIS TENT HAD BEEN AT THE BEGINNING, BETWEEN
BETH-EL AND HAI; UNTO THE PLACE OF THE ALTAR, WHICH HE HAD MADE
THERE AT THE FIRST: AND THERE ABRAM CALLED ON THE NAME OF THE
LORD.” — Gen. xiii. 3, 4.
IN the early chapters of the story of Abraham we read of him
wandering from pasture to pasture, living a roving shepherd’s
life, guided only by fresher herbage or a wider range. It was
an unsettled, desultory existence, just of the kind to tempt a
man into vacant, desultory thought. Sitting in his tent and
watching the lazy browsing of the herds, the languor of the warm
air stealing in upon him, and round him the silence and repose
of an oriental landscape; one day like another, and the careless
foot of a wanderer straying through each — there was a great
danger that life would become an idle monotony of change,
without purpose, seriousness, or connection. It is in those
very chapters that we are struck by the repetition of a simple
phrase, Abraham builded an altar, called upon the name of the
Lord. On the plain of Moreh, on the hillside between Beth-el
and Hai, at Mamre and Beersheba, there was the sacrifice and the
prayer. No link of life might bind him to the spot, there could
be no great variety of incident to mark his sojourn, the growth
of the young grass would hide all trace of his encampment: but
the altars remained; he found them standing years after they
were built; they linked his wanderings together; and they told
him that God’s eye was upon him, clear and unchanging; that his
presence was with him, that he was there by God’s calling, that
this vague roving life had a very distinct and sacred meaning.
And long after, when the stones had been pushed out of their
places by the wind, and lay soiled and weather-beaten in the
rank weeds, they declared to other generations that Abraham felt
the land was God’s — His whom Melchizedek confessed as the
possessor of heaven and earth.
To us also they speak, revealing the secret of Abraham’s inner
life, its strength and consecration. Where the flock halted, his
worship began. It was at the altar he knelt down, and opened
his heart to God. The common picture of him left upon our minds
is of a calm and gentle serenity. Reading of him as he grew
rich in cattle and silver and gold, sat in his tent door, or
came out by night to gaze upon the stars, we recall such notions
as we have of shepherd life, and blend them all together with
the natural repose of age. Yet Abraham’s life was rugged,
harsh, and painful; his character was full of fire, energy, and
passion. When the restlessness and buoyancy of youth were over,
when he was old enough to feel not only the pain and isolation
of removal, but reluctance, God called him from his home to a
strange country. He became the pilgrim that God meant him to
be, wandered up and down among the foreign Canaanites, was
driven as far as Egypt by famine, parted by a servants’ quarrel
from the only kinsman that had followed him, twice cruelly
separated from his wife, tried by jealousies and strife in his
house, forced to cast one of his sons with his mother out upon
the desert, on the point of slaying the other with his own hand,
and obliged at last to beg for a grave among strangers. Trials
fell thick upon him, and not as they might fall upon dull,
passionless natures. His rapid impetuous march upon Lot’s
captors, the passionate tenderness of his love for Sarai, the
ardour of his hospitality at Mamre, even when stricken in years,
flash through the evenness of every day the clearest light into
his character. Sensitive, eager, high-spirited, he was exposed
to that keenness of trial that blunter tempers may escape. It
would descend on him with crushing blows; it would wound,
perplex and humble him. And if we are to account for the
dominant impression of calm with which we rise from the reading
of his life, is it not by the altar where he called upon the
name of the Lord? Is it not that it was there he brought the
occupations and the little incidents of life, his cares and
annoyances, his impatience and rebelliousness? Was it not there
that his temper lost its sharpness, and trouble ceased to vex
him; that he won rest, and grace, and holier faith, and the
peace that brooded over his later days?
The hint that these words throw out, the solution that they
offer, is one of wide and daily interest. Most lives may seem
to run in worn and common grooves, yet what is common is
trouble, disappointment and care. Most days may seem so like
that they blend into a hazy memory, yet it is the likeness of
duty done and not done, of circumstances each of which is
fashioning the conduct, thoughts that are pure or impure,
temptations weak or strong. To each of us this daily life is a
matter of supreme importance. To each of us it is our own, of
no great account possibly in the sum of lives, “common as the
commonplace,” but concerning us more nearly than aught else in
the world, with issues of immortality and eternity hung upon
it. How it may be beautified, purified, and consecrated, how
the burden and pain of it may best be borne, how its bitter may
become sweet and its rough places plain, how it may win the
strength, dignity, and repose of Abraham’s are questions we must
often ask, to which this calling upon the name of the Lord
returns an intelligible answer. What we learn here seems to be,
The influence of daily prayer on daily life; and to understand
that, we must consider —
I. The Character of Abraham’s Prayer. — There is but one
prayer of Abraham on record. While the sky over Sodom and
Gomorrhas was already charged with the fires that destroyed
them, he begged the Judge of all the earth to forbear. The
narrative is one of the most tragically vivid in the Bible, and
the tragedy is woven with miracle, cut off, it might seem, from
the sphere of everyday. The prayer rises to a height as lofty
as the occasion: an unparalleled sublimity. And yet at his
altar Abraham must have prayed in the same spirit, out of the
same heart to God, as on the brow of the hills of Hebron. If
this one prayer rise higher, we may believe it only shows the
characteristics of all his prayers in bolder relief: —
1. Frankness, for example. With an open heart, like the
man who was the “Friend of God.” Abraham told out his
thoughts. He was puzzled. God was the righteous one: justice
and judgment were the habitation of his throne. But right and
wrong get sadly mixed in the world. Upright men would
sometimes be unjust, and the truest men be false. And from this
confusion he could look up to the heavens and feel that there
was an infinite Justice there. It was the one clear fixed
point. Unclouded by human passions, untouched by prejudice and
infirmity, unmoved by praise and blame, unerring and
unalterable, God dwells apart in his own high heaven. But would
He destroy the innocent with the guilty? Must righteous Lot
suffer for the filthy conversation of the wicked? He was
perplexed with new and troubled thoughts; and he bore them
frankly to God. He might have pressed them back. Did they not
seem to cast a slur upon God’s providence? was it not
presumptuous to measure and weigh God’s ways? was he not afraid
to hint that there was such a difficulty in his soul? There are
hundreds who reason in that spirit: for there are times when we
do question God’s ways very earnestly and bitterly, grappling
with the mysteries of his dealings, and striving to deny the
justice of his judgments; times when the heart is quivering to
some fine torture, and we look up for clue to it in vain. The
hasty, rebel thought is thrust down with the whole force of our
reverence for God, and our terror of sin. And yet it will come
up again. The unsatisfied murmuring spirit remains; and the
wound is only hidden, not healed. We meet with a thousand
perplexities: dealings of God in the world that seem to deny his
justice; strokes of pain that seem to deny his mercy; cries for
help that seem to strike against a heaven of brass; a tolerance
and honour and security of evil that seem to conflict with his
hatred of sin; good men perishing before their prime; some
single voice upheld for truth, and drowned at last in the
clamour of the wrong. Shall we press them back upon our hearts,
to remain a burden and a snare and an engine of temptation?
Shall we not lift them up before God as a weight too heavy for
his children to carry? Let these thoughts and murmurings be put
down, but let God put them down. Does He not know our frame,
and remember that we are dust? To whom may we bring our puzzles
if not to Him? Frankly, honestly, let us bring them, if not for
light, yet for strength and faith to bear them a little longer.
2. Confidence is another mark of Abraham’s prayers: it
comes out in each thought, in the shaping of every petition. He
is confident that God will do right. Whatever may seem to
contradict that can make no real change. He rests on what he
knows to be true: bewilderment and doubt could only drive him to
take refuge there. He is confident God will be merciful. He is
as sure of it as that He must be just. Neither the notorious
wickedness of Sodom, nor the announcement of judgment shake him
in that conviction. He is confident that God will hear him. It
is by this thought that the prayer rises to its height. The
hoariest sinners in Canaan were to be smitten--men that had sunk
to be as low as their own beasts. Sentence was to be executed
speedily--the very next day. He that talked with Abraham had
declared that this judgement was his own work; that He was about
to fulfil it; that He was the Judge of all the earth. Little
room, one might say, for pleading there. Yet Abraham pleads as
if there was no discouragement, with a firm, unwavering
petition--a request that is sublime in its apparent
hopelessness, its absolute trust. We have all that right of
prayer; the knowledge that He heareth us; that we may go to Him
when we will. Our prayer is not a formal didactic lesson, to be
said only when it can be well said; we may be able to plead no
precedent for it: if we can only rest it on the ground of what
God is, let us pray it with all our might. Are we satisfied
that God is just, let us pray Him by his justice; that He is our
Father, let us pray Him by his love; that He has redeemed us,
let us pray Him by his Son; that He cares for all his creatures,
let us pray Him by his goodness; nay, if we feel no more than
the awfulness and mystery of his Being, let us pray Him even by
that to reveal Himself that we may know Him.
3. There is another feature of Abraham’s prayer that is
preserved with the happiest fidelity--its childlikeness.
No one would care to miss that singular naivete with
which he reduces the numbers by five to as low a point as he may
venture. His simple credence, his ease in the midst of
supernatural wonders, his intense realism, his fearlessness,
belong to the spirit of the child. No doubt he is a man of a
great and childlike heart; and such are our greatest men, whose
hearts keep fresh when lesser men’s have withered into worliness.
But a child’s heart is the gift God offers with his Spirit,
which any Christian may claim and hope for, with which, in its
completeness, the saint shall be finally endowed; for the vision
of heaven is the clearest sight into our Father’s heart. To Him
we should come as his children, as we would have our children
come to us. Through files of guards, and courtly vesture, and
the symbols of a king, the king’s little son will press to his
father upon the very throne. Through angel files and pomp of of
heaven, up to the light that is full of glory and the throne
that is above every throne, we may press to our God. Notice the
child’s easy ways without embarrassment, his instincts of love,
his wondering but reverent eyes, his faith that solves all later
puzzles, his light step through the same life where men move
slowly, weighing of its mysteries: and gather from them the
secret and very heart of prayer. You, too, are a child: by no
means easy to remember. For there is your wider knowledge of
the forces of nature and the principles of life, of the cunning
and wisdom stored up in the world, the order evolved out of
confusion, vastness of conception and elaborate detail; and as
this knowledge grows, so does God seem to remove from sphere to
sphere into far off and ever deepening awe. And there is your
power of estimating moral qualities and measuring their worth,
sifting men’s conduct for them, placing them one by one and
noting their relative brilliance, marking what hinders or
detracts from them, and how much the real falls short of the
ideal; and with this larger power there grows up unconsciously a
larger reverence for the perfect attributes of God, a feeling of
his awful and unapproachable grandeur, of a justice,
righteousness, firmness, a purity, love, and truth, that are
dazzling and bewildering--a revelation of His glory that seems
to surround Him with inaccessible light. And there is that
consciousness and knowledge of sin that comes of longer contact
with men, of its soil upon your heart and its curse upon life,
the darkness and dismal doom of it; while the holiness of God
builds itself up before you, like some peak of snow, into
infinite distance of blue. To recognize all these thoughts, yet
feel towards God as our Father, is not the same as to come to
Him in the freshness and singleness of childhood. But let that
thought of his Fatherhood be displaced, and let us, though it be
in reverence, conceive God only by his majesty, and we drop the
comfort and serenity of prayer, if not the very key to it. His
Fatherhood, our Childhood, are the noblest part of the
reconciliation effected by his Son. To hold them may cost us a
struggle, but it must be one of the victories of our faith. We
are his children if we believe in the death of Jesus Christ for
us. We are to worship Him, speak to Him, think of Him as our
Father. It is not a dream, nor a hope for the future, nor a
privilege of rare souls. Here on earth, joyful or sorrowful; as
near our conversion as the jailer at Philippi when he believed;
as far past it as Paul when he said, “I am ready to depart”--we
can look up through veil after veil of splendours, and pray,
saying, Our Father, who art in heaven.
There are no doubt other characteristics of Abraham’s
prayer than these, some common to all prayer, some peculiar to
this--faith, directness, earnestness, importunity. But these
three are the most notable and pertinent. They help us to
understand how Abraham prayed at his altar--how we should pray
at ours. They help to explain the great change that was wrought
in his character, temper, and life; to make us realize—
II. The Influence of Prayer upon Daily Life.--The
tendency of culture and of a high civilization is to multiply
our wants and pleasures. Society becomes more and more complex,
its machinery more intricate and delicate. We require to take
more into account: there seem to be more force at work; their
direction and power are modified by more varied conditions.
And, with this change, the old simplicity wears out of life. It
is inevitable. We cannot stay this growth of knowledge and
skill by which the world advances to higher destinies.
Even were this not so, life would often be a puzzle to
us — a tangle of broken threads. Our most matured plans will
fall into confusion. So easy an accident may defeat our wisdom,
may befall us from so many quarters, that we cannot absolutely
guard against it. Yet it may completely derange our
calculations, and to bring back some order may be a tedious and
discouraging task. Every year, and almost every day, has its
embarrassments, when we pause perplexed about the next step.
Every act in the past is connected with indefinite consequences
in the future. Our duty may not be always plain; it may need
more than a sensitive conscience and a clear head to determine
it. When it is plain, it may involve us so seriously that our
anxiety to do it is less than our anxiety when it is done.
Moreover, there are knotty questions that we find unexpectedly,
questions of casuistry in morals, apparent contradictions
between physical and theological science, problems about the
relations of good and evil in this world, and these lay on many
minds a greater burden than weightier and more personal cares.
In such puzzle and embarrassment of life it is easy to conceive
the influence of prayer. For this business that you cannot
unravel you give over to God and his wisdom and love for you,
and there is no tangle nor perplexity to Him. Most of us know
the relief of carrying our confusion to some friend of clear
judgment and experience, and even if he could give us no
immediate clue, how lightened we felt to know that he sought for
it, and kept our position before him. We have felt as if
already we might dismiss much of our uneasiness, and by that
very feeling we have been so helped that we could see our own
way through. We have relief in the best form by prayer, by
counsel with the Counsellor, laying our position before Him,
begging his help. He has never refused it to His people: as a
Father He will not. When He has taken up the tangled threads,
we may be sure of finding the lost clue. And if we trust Him
for direction beforehand, and let our plans and all our conduct
originate in prayer, we have greater gain: for steps that it
would have cost us infinite pains to venture, and that after
pains we might have taken in darkness and misgivings, we now
take with the fearless faith and readiness of a child. Thus
referring everything to God, the most involved life may become
simple.
And as life gains in simplicity, it gains in power.
Time and thought are not spent in searching passages that lead
to nothing. With plainer landmarks of right and wrong, the
habit of waiting to be guided by an unerring hand, and a readier
and bolder decision, we are better able to work and have more
leisure. A stream may waste its strength over its own rough bed
with roar and foam, and chafe against the walls of rock that
fling its eddies back; but, led by the wit and hand of man into
another channel, it will not only flow smoothly past its ancient
barriers, but find force to turn the dry mill-wheel. And
instead of much noise and many rash and hasty words, our life
through prayer will flow quietly, and spend its force in labours
of charity and love: for we want time to think of others, and
spread the holy kingdom; and instead of being tied by our
perplexities, our hands should be free for working with God.
And this life will be the simplest, and the happiest, and the
life of faith, and faith is fed through prayer.
2. It will calm our daily life. — Abraham’s
calm is beautiful and soothing; sometimes rising to a noble
dignity. It is beautiful in his straits between Sarah, Ishmael,
and Hagar: solemn and stately in his journey up to Mount
Moriah. We can imagine with what pains he reached it; how much
this self-command had cost him; how he must have fought against
himself till the battle was won. Nor is it self-command only,
but a deep serenity, of which, surely, most of us have felt the
need. Many a good deed has been spoilt by haste; many a good
advice by irritation; many a wordy arrow has pierced through our
impatience that would have glanced off our calm. We have been
sufferers, and others have not been gainers. We may have wished
that some angel, seated at the springs of life, could touch our
thoughts and temper with his wand. Now God has provided for
this wish by prayer. Those who kneel at the altar, before the
infinite calm of God, pass to their work with a calmer mind.
Our communion with his peace leaves peace with us. What has
vexed and fretted us, the petty cares and troubles of the day,
the hurt feelings, the fancied slights, sink into their true
littleness, beside this holy everlasting alm. On a mountain
summit, in the hush of autumn woods, or when the dawn reveals
the silent spotless sky and the silent dewy earth, the natural
calm may have stolen into our minds. But these are rare
moments, not in the common track of life; and that calm is
little better than a yearning for it. It does not help us
through the day it probably makes us dissatisfied that the day
is so unlike it; it imparts no strength. From prayer we carry a
peace and restfulness that remain; that are wrought into our
souls; and we carry them everywhere, into pleasures and duties,
business, study, household work, in the dusty common high road,
where we bear with all others the burden and heat of the day.
The world is feverish, and we cannot withdraw from its
contagion. We go into it every morning, and we may feel the
emptiness and vanity of it but we are also likely to feel its
fever, to be carried away by its haste, and eagerness, and
selfishness, to be ruffled and excited by its competition. If
we are to resist it, to watch it sweep past with its pomp, and
glitter, and rewards, and have no care to join it, let us pray.
Let us overcome in prayer the worldliness and fever of our own
hearts. Realizing that God plans for us, that we are of a
kingdom that God plans for us, that we are of a kingdom
infinitely wider and nobler than the world, we shall learn to
wait quietly with our times in God’s hand.
We must expect to hear false estimates of our conduct;
to be credited with unworthy motives; to meet slander, and
deceit, and ingratitude; to have our sense of duty aspersed,
ridiculed, isolated; to be deserted by friends, and pained by
busy tongues. It is galling to bear: it kindles a man’s
resentment; provokes him to recrimination; leads him into heat.
Yet we gain nothing by angry retort; and if such hurts as these
prey upon us, they must weaken our energy and influence for
good. If we submit them all to God we do wisely. When we have
poured them into his ear, our minds are relieved. He should be
the first to know them. Perhaps there is some truth in what we
hear. Let us weigh it over in prayer: we shall be the wiser and
calmer for it. We shall have felt that the truest love we have
has not changed, we shall have gained strength and time to take
one more look at the Man of sorrows: the next time the wound
will not be so deep.
There may happen great losses and reverses--trials like
death, that threaten the very foundation of our life; or like
incurable pain, that make the future look dark and
interminable. Even these may be borne with calmness: neither
passively nor stoically, for then it were only the semblance of
calm; but sensitively, yet with the firmest faith in God’s
goodness. Under the daily calm of prayer, patience and
fortitude grow up like tender flowers beneath a peaceful sky;
and when the hour of sorrow comes the heart by its own wont will
turn to God, and from prayer we shall go back among men
chastened, and not killed.
And in the household there may be asperities of temper,
prominences or defects of character, that are equally
unpleasant, causes for discontent and blame, roots of bitterness
that spring up. A child’s fault, a servant’s misconduct, a
hasty spirit, a quick cutting word, a sharp answer, may do much
mischief. We may give pain without intending it. It is in
prayer that the fittest temper will be won, that we shall earn
forbearance. Such calm souls we have all known: whose sweetness
penetrated every member of the home, who bore themselves
unruffled —
“Whom by the softest step and gentlest tone
Enfeebled spirits own.”
By such calmness we may be known ourselves, though none but God
shall know how dear it cost us.
3. It will hallow our daily life. — We cannot
detach our common life from our spiritual. We cannot live to
God with one nature, and to man with another. The common life
is so common, so much taken up with food and raiment, profit and
loss, that we would fain cultivate our spiritual faculties by
themselves. We fancy it would make our devotion pure if we
could keep it from the soil and lowness of common things; that
it would wear out its sanctity if we brought it own to our every
day routine. But history and experience teach us that if the
body be not kept for God there will be little sanctification of
the spirit; and the Scriptures assert that both are redeemed by
the blood of Christ, and that both are to be wrought on by the
Holy Ghost. It is not so much the difficulty of conceiving
this, as the difficulty of realizing it, that makes us shrink
from it as if it could not be. For if God’s help and blessing
are withheld from all but distinctly spiritual acts, the greater
part of men’s lives, and that which is the most fertile of
temptation, is left without control. Nor is there anything evil
in this toil that fills up our days. It is necessary to the
existence of the world, to the happiness of families, and to
health of mind.
The difficulty is one of practice. We sometimes see
that the lower wants swamp the higher; that the weariness of
work, the strain of either body or mind is made excuse for
neglecting spiritual truth; that the cares of this world choke
the word and it becometh unfruitful. We feel that our daily
duties absorb our attention, that business to be done must be
well done, that many of our occupations are petty in comparison
with eternity; but since they are to be done we take refuge in
the cultivation of a separate religious life, of feelings and
duties distinct from the common day. Yet to connect our daily
acts of whatever kind with God’s will, must surely elevate them,
and will not make us less spiritual, but more. If we can feel
that it is of God’s order men are artisans or ploughmen,
merchants or lawyers, it must help us to look reverently up to
Him from the bench, or the plough, or the counting-house. And
if we feel that the pettiest circumstance is not beneath God’s
thought, it must be to the gain of our piety.
It is these thoughts that are brought up by daily
prayer. Its whole drift is to connect the day with God, to lead
us to believe that no part of it is indifferent to Him, that
Paul was as much following out His plan when he wrought with his
own hands as when he preached the gospel. The tendency of most
work is to absorb us at the time. We must throw ourselves into
it heartily, if we are to succeed. If we have every worked
abstractedly, with minds preoccupied, and drifting along
currents of thought that carry us from our immediate business,
we have worked badly; and because we are best to keep the one
thought, we pray our Father to remember us in it. The sanctity
of life may consist as well in the righteousness, honour, and
fidelity of our duty, as in the hallowed hours of meditation.
If the work is to be done, let it be well done. If it
is not a properly religious act, let it be acted in the spirit
of devout man. Buying in the funds, cutting a railway, sailing
a ship, serving a household, are not religious acts; but they
are not therefore irreligious. They are of a kind that all men
must do, that human life requires, although, compared with
worship, they belong to an outer world. And God’s guidance is
as true to us in one world of thought or action as another. If
the conditions are such as He has imposed, we can claim and
assuredly we shall need his help: not necessarily to give us
divided thoughts, but to keep our motives pure, our standard of
duty that we are his children, our conduct honourable.
The effect of committing life thus to God will be to
prevent what all Christians bewail, the deadening of their
piety, the loss of the keen edge of religious feeling, the
flagging of interest in God’s kingdom, the lowering of their
Christian tone, the gradual hiding and forgetting of the
invisible behind the visible. For they learn to feel how God
watches all life, week-day and sabbath-day; how they never cease
to be disciples of Christ; how, at any time, God’s hand may
sweep away their difficulties; how, in business even, they walk
by faith, believing in a wisdom, support, and integrity that
come from above. Convinced that their business is under God’s
care, they are not disturbed by sudden revulsions of feeling
from secular to sacred, but work with a peace and satisfaction
unknown to others. The risks, disappointments, irritations,
perplexities that they meet are borne with greater strength, for
the possibility of them has been foreseen in prayer. The sense
of God’s presence is with them, calms them, keeps them from
extremes. And by all this their work is hallowed, and connected
with god’s plan, and with those great issues of life that flow
out into eternity.
Such will be the effect of prayer upon daily life —
Simplicity, Calm, and Sanctity; yet not as if these exhausted
its influence. It will be felt in other directions as well — in
other blessings, of which these may be taken only as examples.
I have regarded it apart from all special petitions. We have
the widest latitude to ask, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and
we have confidence that our asking will be followed by a
giving. If the special petitions we might bring were included,
the result would be more singular What result there is will
follow even from the habit of prayer alone. Habit it must be.
It was connected with Abraham’s wanderings, the increase of his
flocks, every new settlement, his daily thoughts It must be as
much connected with ourselves. It will produce nothing if it be
irregular, spasmodic, maintained for a time and allowed to
drop. Emergencies will often draw spiritual thoughts out of
their obscurity, as they draw great men. Sodom and Moriah must
have opened depths in Abraham’s heart of which he was not
conscious. But when the power that touches these secret springs
is withdrawn, like fountains opened by an earthquake, they
close. A life may be marked by epochs, but it will be moulded
by every day. Our prayer must be constant; our altar builded
every where. As we shift from youth to age, from town to town,
through narrow circumstances upwards to success, or by reverses
down to poverty, let every spot and change be marked by the
altar, and the days of every resting -place by calling upon the
name of the Lord. Amen. — W. FLEMING STEVENSON.
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THE CHILDREN’S SERVICE.
OF GOD’S APPEARING TO ELIJAH IN HOREB.
ONE would think that Elijah must have been quite drenched,
running before Ahab’s chariot in the great rain all the way from
Carmel to Jezreel. But I am sure he did not mind that much: he
was so glad to think that the heart of the people had been
turned back again to seek the true God. I think as he ran he
would be calling up in his mind the grandness of the scene when
the fire of God fell from heaven, and would seem as if he heard
over again the great shout that rose from the crowd as they fell
on their faces, crying, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is
the God. But perhaps after he got home and the excitement had
gone down, he became really unwell with fatigue and cold, so as
to be more easily daunted with a message which came next day to
him from the queen. For the great prophet was a man subject to
‘like passions,’ as James says, with ourselves, and in him
weariness of body would help, as in us, to make the spirit weak,
too. Be that as it may, we are now to see Elijah a very
different man from what he was on Carmel. The change came about
in this way. When Jezebel, the king’s wife, heard that Elijah
had ordered all the priests of Baal to be killed, she was filled
with fierce rage; so angry was she, that, after swearing by her
gods that she would take Elijah’s life as he had taken the
priests’, she sent to tell him that she had done so, and would
kill him the very next day; not thinking how she was going him
warning that he might escape. People in hot rage often do
things which go against their own ends. Now what would you
expect the bold Elijah to do when the queen’s message came to
him? I think you would be ready to say, He will trust in God,
and have no fear of her threat. He will, at least, ask God what
he should do. But no; he rose up and fled for his life. God
had some great lessons to teach him far away, and he left him to
his own fear and weakness. So, as I have said, without staying
to pray to God about it, or waiting at least, for an answer, he
took a servant with him and fled. Away to the south he went,
through the kingdom of Judah, till he came to Beer-sheba, its
very farthest town on the edge of the desert. Here he left his
servant, but himself, as if he did not feel yet quite safe,
travelled a whole day further into the wilderness. He found
there a juniper tree and lay down under its shade, and began to
pray to God to let him die. He said, O Lord, take away my life,
for I am not better than my fathers.
Here, you may say, is a strange thing; Elijah fled for
his life, and now he is weary of it. But such things are common
in men’s moods of mind. Besides, it was both for the prophet
himself and the people, to die by the will of God answering his
prayer. It is well to notice, too, his complaint that he was no
better than the prophets that went before him. He does not mean
that he was as sinful as they, but that he had proved as weak to
do good as they had been. After hearing the people shout on
Carmel, he thought they would worship idols no more; but after
the queen’s message, he saw how soon the power of a bad court
would draw them back again to Baal. He began to think all that
had happened on Carmel had happened in vain and his spirit sunk
as low as his hopes had been high. He said to himself, I may as
well give up trying to do any good, and he prayed to God to take
him from the earth.
He asked for death, but God sent him sleep. Then, as he
lay sleeping, God bade an angel go serve him. So, the angel
came down and baked a cake for him, and placed it with a cup of
water close beside where his head was lying. Then he touched
him, and said, Wake up and eat. Elijah woke at the angel’s
touch, and seeing the bread and water, he ate and drank. No
doubt he felt refreshed, but he was still weary, and lay down to
sleep again. After a while, the angel touched and woke him a
second time, and bade him eat, for he was to take a long
journey, and would need all the strength he could get. So
getting up, he did eat and drink, and then set out on his way.
For forty days he did not eat again, going on as God led him and
held him up, till he came to Mount Horeb, far in the desert.
That was the mountain, you know, on which God came down from
heaven to give his law to his people Israel, when he had brought
them out of Egypt. Here Elijah found a cave, and went in and
lodged in it; still, I suppose, fasting. For the journey
probably did not last all the forty days, as the distance to be
travelled was only one hundred and fifty miles. Perhaps
Elijah’s fast continued till God brought him back from the
desert to the land of Israel again.
While Elijah was staying in the cave, he heard God
speaking to him, and asking him what he did there? This
question was to bring out the state of the prophet’s mind, and
to prepare him for what God was going to show him. He was quite
ready with his answer; he said that he had been very earnest,
leading for God with the people, but all to no purpose: they had
killed all the prophets but himself, and now they were seeking
his life, and he had been obliged to flee out of the way. That
was what had brought him to the desert. God then told Elijah to
come out of the cave and stand on the mountain, and watch what
was to follow. So he went out and stood in the open air. While
he was standing here, a great strong wind swept over Horeb, and
cast down rocks and dashed them to pieces, and Elijah knew that
God had sent it, but he did not come himself in the wind. After
the storm had passed the mountain began to shake and tremble,
and the prophet felt that God had sent another agent of his
great power, an earthquake; but neither in this did he come
himself. When the ground had got settled after the earthquake,
another scene opened. The mountain was wrapt in fire, and the
flames moved and gleamed all around, terrible to see. The
prophet knew it was God’s fire, but neither did he show himself
in that. Then behind all these fearful things, when the fire had
ceased to burn and all was calm, Elijah heard a soft still
voice, and knew that God was near him now, and he hid his face
in his mantle. Again God asked him what he was doing there, and
getting the same answer, he went on to show that the prophet was
mistaken in thinking that no good people were left in Israel,
for there were seven thousand who had never bowed a knee to
idols. Then he told him to go back from the wilderness, for
there was work for him still to do. He was to anoint a person
named to be king of Syria, another to be king of Israel, and
Elisha to be prophet in his own room. All this Elijah went away
to do.
But what could be the meaning of the strange and
striking vision which the prophet had at Horeb? It taught a
lesson to Elijah, and it was a grand prophecy of things far
away. You must have noticed that Elijah’s great works in Israel
were works of judgment--bringing famine, slaying the
idol-priests, burning up the wicked captains with their
fifties. Now God wanted to teach Elijah that although such
works were needed, yet he must not be surprised that they did
not win the people’s hearts back to their God. That was to come
by gentler means. So the Lord did not show himself in the
storm, or the earthquake, or the fire, but came in the still
small voice. Elijah’s ministry was to prepare for another,
which would show more of mercy than of judgment. So almost all
the great works wrought by Elisha, who came after him, were
miracles of kindness and grace. But beyond that, immediate
explanation of the vision, it went to prophesy what would happen
long after. It said that the law given at Horeb, amid fire and
shaking of the mount and black storm, was not meant and not
fitted to win the world for God; that it was to make ready for
the coming of love; and this came when Jesus, meek and lowly,
gentle and kind, came into the world, to see and to save that
which was lost, by giving his life for them, and drawing them to
himself.
In this age of love, this time of the still small voice,
you, dear young readers, live. Have you felt the love draw
you? Have you heard the soft sweet voice speak to your hearts?
Here is something of what it says, hush! listen! --Come to me,
come to me, I will give you rest.
----------------
QUESTIONS ON THE BIBLE STORY.
1. Do you remember an eminent servant of Jesus Christ,
that once stood wet and cold before a fire?
2. Can you name a person who changed very soon from
great boldness to cowardice?
3. Do you recollect another great prophet who fled into
the desert from fear that his life would be taken?
4. Who was it that would not flee when a message was
brought him that there was a plot against his life?
5. What other still greater person once received
tidings that his life was sought for by a wicked king, and bade
those who advised him to flee, to carry a bold message back to
him?
6. What incident gave Beer-sheba its name? and what is
the meaning of it?
7. What other prophet wanted God to take away his life?
8. To whom did angels bring food after a fast of forty
days and nights in the desert?
9. Where and how often did Moses fast for forty days?
10. What prophets lodged and were fed in caves; and what
good men were driven to such haunts by cruel persecution?
11. Can you find a prophecy which foretold that Jesus would
speak with a gentle and winning voice?
12. Who was it that by a ministry like Elijah’s prepared for
another full of mercy?
13. What scene in Christ’s life showed that Horeb, as Moses and
Elijah saw it, was to yield to Calary in the conquest of the
world?
ANSWERS to the foregoing can be found by consulting Acts
xxviii.; John xviii.; Exod. ii., Acts vii.; Neh. vi.; Luke
xiii.; Gen. xxi.; Jonah iv.; Matt. iv.; Deut. ix.; 1 Kings
xviii.; Heb. xi.; Heb. xi.; Isa. xli., Isa. xlii.; Luke i. and
iii.; Luke ix.
----------------
QUESTIONS ON THE BIBLE LESSONS.
1. Are all believers freed from condemnation?
2. Does the death of Christ secure that believers shall
be delivered from the power as well as from the punishment of
sin?
3. Was this the design of God in giving his Son to die
for sinners? Rom. viii. 3, 4.
4. Will all the children of God be glorified together
with Christ at last? Rom. viii. 17.
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Prayer.
O LORD God, the bravest and the boldest cannot stand without
Thee. Do not allow us to think at any time that we can stand in
our own strength. When we feel weak, let us lean on Thy help.
We bless Thee that Thou dost promise to give power to the faint,
and when Thou dost strengthen Thy people are made able to do and
bear all things. Thou dost not cast off Thy servants that trust
in Thee, and even when they fall Thou raisest them up again. O
Lord, we praise Thy name that Jesus has come to make all this
plainer to us than before. We thank Thee for His great service
of love on the earth. We rejoice to think how gentle and meek
he was, and how he is not changed now. May his kindness win and
hold us, and may we listen always to His voice, doing what he
bids, and going where he leads. May we hear it speak sweetly to
us when we come to die, and can hear no voice but His. All this
we ask for His mercies’ sake. Amen.
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EVENING WORSHIP.
OUR God and Father, who in Thy love hast given Jesus Christ to
die for the sins of the world, and hast raised Him up that our
faith and hope might be in Thee, grant that we, dying unto sin
by the power of His cross, may also know the power of His
resurrection, so that we may daily rise to newness of life in
Him, and with Him enter even here into perfect rest in Thee.
HYMN, or Psalm lvii. 1, 2, 11.
NOW, gracious Lord, thine arm reveal,
And make thy glory known;
Now let us all thy presence feel,
And soften hearts of stone!
Help us to venture near thy throne,
And plead a Saviour’s name:
For all that we can call our own
Is vanity and shame.
Send down thy Spirit from above,
That saints may love thee more;
And sinners now may learn to love,
Who never loved before.
And when before Thee we appear,
In our eternal home,
May growing numbers worship here,
And praise Thee in our room!
ROMANS VIII. 1-27.
THERE is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit. 2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3. For what the
law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God
sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for
sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4. That the righteousness of
the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. 5. For they that are after the flesh do
mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit
the things of the Spirit. 6. For to be carnally minded is death;
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7. Because the
carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. 8. So then they that are in
the flesh cannot please God, &c.
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Prayer.
We bless Thee, O God, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
that with Thee there is no variableness, neither shadow of
turning; that as Thou wast so Thou art; that as we come to Thee
in prayer, we find in Thee what all our fathers found. We bless
Thee that through the changes of our life, and the changes of
the world, and the fleeting and perishing of all we see on
earth, Thou abidest our God and Father in heaven. We beg of
Thee now for Thy grace, and that it may please thee to
strengthen our faith and encourage us to pray. Give us
childlike confidence in Thee. Help us to remember that we are
Thy children, and that to be Thy children Thou hast redeemed us
by the precious blood of our Redeemer. May we trust thee, O
God, without a doubt, and trust to Thee all our interests and
all our life, our cares, anxieties, and troubles, our kindred
and friends, Let us be drawn ever nearer to Thee by Thy good
and holy Spirit, whom Thou hast sent to dwell in our hearts.
May He sustain us in unbroken fellowship with Thee. May He bear
daily witness to us that we have boldness to enter into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus, that to them that are in Jesus
there is no condemnation. May we be preserved from all
estrangement; and when our sins cloud over Thy face, Father, may
we confess our sins, since, for Christ’s sake, thou art faithful
and just to forgive them to us.
We raise our prayers to Thee at this altar of our
household. Blessed be Thy name that Thou hearest us; be that we
can bring all our burdens to Thee here; that though Thou knowest
our inmost thoughts, our secret faults, our infirmities, and all
the corruption of our hearts, Thou dost not turn us away from
Thee, but dost bid us ask that we may receive, and that our joy
may be full. And here, O God, we thank Thee for the strength
and merciful comfort of Thy word, for the blessings of Thy holy
day, for Thy church and its living witness to Thee, and for the
grace of all Thy means of grace. May the strength, and peace,
and heavenly thoughts they have given us be daily renewed, so
that we may go on from strength to strength until in Zion we
appear before God. We feel we might have used Thy gifts to more
good; that evil and ungenerous thoughts, and secret lusts, and
an unsteady mind, and our self-will, have hindered many of this
day’s blessings. Our peace and quiet have been broken by the
distractions of the world, by our foolish troubles and
misgivings, by our judging of others, and by our want of faith.
We come to Thee with a penitent, contrite, and humble heart, for
these and all our other sins. Cleanse our hearts from them, O
God; and do Thou, Lord Jesus Christ, conquer our hearts entirely
for Thyself, and confirm Thy kingdom within us, and spread it
without. May the gospel have many triumphs this day, and the
light and truth which Thou hast sent forth lead many to Thee.
May there be many broken hearts that Thy word has bound up, may
sad lives that it has made happy, many lost and prodigals whom
it has led back to their Father’s house, many closed lips that
it has opened, and bitter lots that it has comforted. May Thy
ministers, O Christ, preach Thee, and Thy people see Thee. May
there be a higher, and holier, and more faithful life throughout
Thy church; and may errors and divisions disappear before the
mighty power of Thy Holy Spirit.
O God, who hast led us all our life, lead us still, and
vouchsafe to us Thy grace that wherever Thou leadest we may
follow; and that we may not make our rest on earth, but remember
that whilst here we are strangers and pilgrims seeking a better
and heavenly country. Lead us to look forward to Thy rest,
Thee, and calm the fear of our life in Thy divine love. We
commit to Thee our household and all our dear ones: we commit to
Thee body, soul, and spirit, that by Thy keeping, O Father, we
may sleep at last in sure and certain hope of a joyful
resurrection. Our Father, &c . Amen.
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MORNING AND EVENING MEDITATIONS.
MONDAY.
Morning.
The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree: he
shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
These that be planted in the house of the Lord shall
flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they
shall be fat and flourishing; ;
To show that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and
there is no unrighteousness in him.
But the path of the just is as the shining light, that
shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
The way of the wicked is as darkness; they know not at
what they stumble.
Ps. xcii. 12, 13, 14, 15. Prov. iv. 18, 19.
Evening.
For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from
the hand of him that was stronger than he.
Therefore they shall come together to the goodness of the Lord,
for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the
flock and of the herd; and their soul shall be as an watered
garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young
men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy,
and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
Jer. xxxi. 11, 12, 13.
TUESDAY.
Morning.
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them
freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.
I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and
cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as
the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they
shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent
thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of
righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go
forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
Hos. xiv. 4, 5, 6, 7. Mal. iv. 2.
Evening.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh
away; and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it
may bring forth more fruit.
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken
unto you.
Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye,
except ye abide in me.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and
ordained you, that ye should go and bring out fruit, and that
your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the
Father in my name, he may give it you.
John xv. 1, 2, 3, 4, 16.
WEDNESDAY.
Morning.
What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are
now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God,
ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the
law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another,
even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring
forth fruit unto God.
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in
knowledge and in all judgment.
Rom. vi. 21, 22, 23. Rom. vii. 4. Phil. i. 9.
Evening.
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the
Lord: walk as children of light;
(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and
righteousness, and truth;)
Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them.
That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye
may be sincere and without offence, till the day of Christ;
Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are
by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Eph. v. 8, 9, 10, 11. Phil. i. 10, 11.
THURSDAY.
Morning.
Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being
fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of
God.
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so
walk ye in him:
Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith,
as ye have been taught, abounding therein with faith, with
thanksgiving.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and
vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of
the world, and not after Christ:
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead
bodily.
Col. i. 10. Col. ii. 6, 7, 8, 9.
Evening.
For where envying and strife is, there is confusion, and
every evil work.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable,
gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them
that make peace.
Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things
before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of
the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness:
But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ.
James iii. 16, 17, 18. 2. Peter iii. 17, 18.
FRIDAY.
Morning.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen.
For by it the elders obtained a good report:
Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions;
(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in
the deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the
earth.
And these all, having obtained a good report through
faith, received not the promise:
God having provided some better thing for us, that they
without us should not be made perfect.
Heb. xi. 1, 2, 33, 38, 39, 40.
Evening.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved, and thy house.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that
believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word,
and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and
shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto
life.
Acts xvi. 31. John iii. 16, 18. John v. 24.
SATURDAY.
Morning.
Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious
power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness;
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and
hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son;
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the
forgiveness of sins.
Col. i. 11, 12, 13, 14.
Evening.
And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his
grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an
inheritance among them which are sanctified.
We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as
it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the
charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;
So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of
God, for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and
tribulations that ye endure.
Acts xx. 32. 2 Thess. i. 3, 4.
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