Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/topics27/t27850

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27851
 February 16                                              Morning

 \\"I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be\\
 \\content."\\
                                               --Philippians 4:11

    These words show us that contentment is not a natural
 propensity of man. "Ill weeds grow apace." Covetousness,
 discontent, and murmuring are as natural to man as thorns are to
 the soil. We need not sow thistles and brambles; they come up
 naturally enough, because they are indigenous to earth: and so,
 we need not teach men to complain; they complain fast enough
 without any education. But the precious things of the earth must
 be cultivated. If we would have wheat, we must plough and sow;
 if we want flowers, there must be the garden, and all the
 gardener's care. Now, contentment is one of the flowers of
 heaven, and if we would have it, it must be cultivated; it will
 not grow in us by nature; it is the new nature alone that can
 produce it, and even then we must be specially careful and
 watchful that we maintain and cultivate the grace which God has
 sown in us. Paul says, "I have \\learned\\ ... to be content;"
 as much as to say, he did not know how at one time. It cost him
 some pains to attain to the mystery of that great truth. No
 doubt he sometimes thought he had learned, and then broke down.
 And when at last he had attained unto it, and could say, "I have
 learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content," he
 was an old, grey-headed man, upon the borders of the grave--a
 poor prisoner shut up in Nero's dungeon at Rome. We might well
 be willing to endure Paul's infirmities, and share the cold
 dungeon with him, if we too might by any means attain unto his
 good degree. Do not indulge the notion that you can be contented
 with \\learning\\, or learn without discipline. It is not a
 power that may be exercised naturally, but a science to be
 acquired gradually. We know this from experience. Brother, hush
 that murmur, natural though it be, and continue a diligent pupil
 in the College of Content.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 27951
 # Nu 8:1 - 9:23 * Daily Bible Reading
27852
 February 17                                              Morning

 \\"Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi."\\
                                                  --Genesis 25:11

    Hagar had once found deliverance there and Ishmael had drank
 from the water so graciously revealed by the God who liveth and
 seeth the sons of men; but this was a merely casual visit, such
 as worldlings pay to the Lord in times of need, when it serves
 their turn. They cry to him in trouble, but forsake him in
 prosperity. Isaac \\dwelt\\ there, and made the well of the
 living and all-seeing God his constant source of supply. The
 usual tenor of a man's life, the \\dwelling\\ of his soul, is
 the true test of his state. Perhaps the providential visitation
 experienced by Hagar struck Isaac's mind, and led him to revere
 the place; its mystical name endeared it to him; his frequent
 musings by its brim at eventide made him familiar with the well;
 his meeting Rebecca there had made his spirit feel at home near
 the spot; but best of all, the fact that he there enjoyed
 fellowship with the living God, had made him select that
 hallowed ground for his dwelling. Let us learn to live in the
 presence of the living God; let us pray the Holy Spirit that
 this day, and every other day, we may feel, "Thou God seest me."
 May the Lord Jehovah be as a well to us, delightful, comforting,
 unfailing, springing up unto eternal life. The bottle of the
 creature cracks and dries up, but the well of the Creator never
 fails; happy is he who dwells at the well, and so has abundant
 and constant supplies near at hand. The Lord has been a sure
 helper to others: his name is Shaddai, God All-sufficient; our
 hearts have often had most delightful intercourse with him;
 through him our soul has found her glorious Husband, the Lord
 Jesus; and in him this day we live, and move, and have our
 being; let us, then, dwell in closest fellowship with him.
 Glorious Lord, constrain us that we may never leave thee, but
 dwell by the well of the living God.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 27952
 # Nu 10:1 - 11:35 * Daily Bible Reading
27853
 February 18                                              Morning

 \\"Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me."\\
                                                       --Job 10:2

    Perhaps, O tried soul, the Lord is doing this to develop thy
 graces. There are some of thy graces which would never be
 \\discovered\\ if it were not for thy trials. Dost thou not know
 that thy faith never looks so grand in summer weather as it does
 in winter? Love is too often like a glow-worm, showing but
 little light except it be in the midst of surrounding darkness.
 Hope itself is like a star--not to be seen in the sunshine of
 prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity.
 Afflictions are often the black foils in which God doth set the
 jewels of his children's graces, to make them shine the better.
 It was but a little while ago that on thy knees thou wast
 saying, "Lord, I fear I have no faith: let me know that I have
 faith." Was not this really, though perhaps unconsciously,
 praying for trials?--for how canst thou know that thou hast
 faith until thy faith is exercised? Depend upon it, God often
 sends us trials that our graces may be discovered, and that we
 may be certified of their existence. Besides, it is not merely
 discovery, \\real growth\\ in grace is the result of sanctified
 trials. God often takes away our comforts and our privileges in
 order to make us better Christians. He trains his soldiers, not
 in tents of ease and luxury, but by turning them out and using
 them to forced marches and hard service. He makes them ford
 through streams, and swim through rivers, and climb mountains,
 and walk many a long mile with heavy knapsacks of sorrow on
 their backs. Well, Christian, may not this account for the
 troubles through which thou art passing? Is not the Lord
 bringing out your graces, and making them grow? Is not this the
 reason why he is contending with you?

                "Trials make the promise sweet;
                Trials give new life to prayer;
                Trials bring me to his feet,
                Lay me low, and keep me there."

 Evening Reading .......................................... 27953
 # Nu 12:1 - 13:33 * Daily Bible Reading
27854
 February 19                                              Morning

 \\"Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of\\
 \\by the house of Israel, to do it for them."\\
                                                  --Ezekiel 36:37

    Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. Turn to sacred history,
 and you will find that scarcely ever did a great mercy come to
 this world unheralded by supplication. You have found this true
 in your own personal experience. God has given you many an
 unsolicited favour, but still great prayer has always been the
 prelude of great mercy with you. When you first found peace
 through the blood of the cross, you had been praying much, and
 earnestly interceding with God that he would remove your doubts,
 and deliver you from your distresses. Your assurance was the
 result of prayer. When at any time you have had high and
 rapturous joys, you have been obliged to look upon them as
 answers to your prayers. When you have had great deliverances
 out of sore troubles, and mighty helps in great dangers, you
 have been able to say, "I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and
 delivered me from all my fears." Prayer is always the preface to
 blessing. It goes before the blessing \\as the blessing's\\
 \\shadow\\. When the sunlight of God's mercies rises upon our
 necessities, it casts the shadow of prayer far down upon the
 plain. Or, to use another illustration, when God piles up a hill
 of mercies, he himself shines behind them, and he casts on our
 spirits the shadow of prayer, so that we may rest certain, if we
 are much in prayer, our pleadings are the shadows of mercy.
 Prayer is thus connected with the blessing \\to show us the\\
 \\value of it\\. If we had the blessings without asking for
 them, we should think them common things; but prayer makes our
 mercies more precious than diamonds. The things we ask for are
 precious, but we do not realize their preciousness until we have
 sought for them earnestly.

           "Prayer makes the darken'd cloud withdraw;
           Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
           Gives exercise to faith and love;
           Brings every blessing from above."

 Evening Reading .......................................... 27954
 # Nu 14:1 - 15:41 * Daily Bible Reading
27855
 February 20                                              Morning

 \\"God, that comforteth those that are cast down."\\
                                              --2 Corinthians 7:6

    And who comforteth like him? Go to some poor, melancholy,
 distressed child of God; tell him sweet promises, and whisper in
 his ear choice words of comfort; he is like the deaf adder, he
 listens not to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so
 wisely. He is drinking gall and wormwood, and comfort him as you
 may, it will be only a note or two of mournful resignation that
 you will get from him; you will bring forth no psalms of praise,
 no hallelujahs, no joyful sonnets. But let \\God\\ come to his
 child, let him lift up his countenance, and the mourner's eyes
 glisten with hope. Do you not hear him sing--

               "'Tis paradise, if thou art here;
               If thou depart, 'tis hell?"

 You could not have cheered him: but the Lord has done it; "He is
 the God of all comfort." There is no balm in Gilead, but there
 is balm in God. There is no physician among the creatures, but
 the Creator is Jehovah-rophi. It is marvellous how one sweet
 word of God will make whole songs for Christians. One word of
 God is like a piece of gold, and the Christian is the
 gold beater, and can hammer that promise out for whole weeks. So,
 then, poor Christian, thou needest not sit down in despair. Go
 to the Comforter, and ask him to give thee consolation. Thou art
 a poor dry well. You have heard it said, that when a pump is
 dry, you must pour water down it first of all, and then you will
 get water, and so, Christian, when thou art dry, go to God, ask
 him to shed abroad his joy in thy heart, and then thy joy shall
 be full. Do not go to earthly acquaintances, for you will find
 them Job's comforters after all; but go first and foremost to
 thy "God, that comforteth those that are cast down," and you
 will soon say, "In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy
 comforts delight my soul."

 Evening Reading .......................................... 27955
 # Nu 16:1 - 18:32 * Daily Bible Reading
27856
 February 21                                              Morning

 \\"He hath said."\\
                                                   --Hebrews 13:5

    If we can only grasp these words by faith, we have an
 all-conquering weapon in our hand. What doubt will not be slain
 by this two-edged sword? What fear is there which shall not fall
 smitten with a deadly wound before this arrow from the bow of
 God's covenant? Will not the distresses of life and the pangs of
 death; will not the corruptions within, and the snares without;
 will not the trials from above, and the temptations from
 beneath, all seem but light afflictions, when we can hide
 ourselves beneath the bulwark of "He hath said"? Yes; whether
 for delight in our quietude, or for strength in our conflict,
 "He hath said" must be our daily resort. And this may teach us
 the extreme value of \\searching\\ the Scriptures. There may be
 a promise in the Word which would exactly fit your case, but you
 may not know of it, and therefore you miss its comfort. You are
 like prisoners in a dungeon, and there may be one key in the
 bunch which would unlock the door, and you might be free; but if
 you will not look for it, you may remain a prisoner still,
 though liberty is so near at hand. There may be a potent
 medicine in the great pharmacopoeia of Scripture, and you may
 yet continue sick unless you will examine and search the
 Scriptures to discover what "He hath said." Should you not,
 besides reading the Bible, store your memories richly with the
 promises of God? You can recollect the sayings of great men; you
 treasure up the verses of renowned poets; ought you not to be
 profound in your knowledge of the words of God, so that you may
 be able to quote them readily when you would solve a difficulty,
 or overthrow a doubt? Since "He hath said" is the source of all
 wisdom, and the fountain of all comfort, let it dwell in you
 richly, as "A well of water, springing up unto everlasting
 life." So shall you grow healthy, strong, and happy in the
 divine life.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 27956
 # Nu 19:1 - 20:29 * Daily Bible Reading
27857
 February 22                                              Morning

 \\"His bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were\\
 \\made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob."\\
                                                  --Genesis 49:24

    That strength which God gives to his Josephs is \\real\\
 strength; it is not a boasted valour, a fiction, a thing of
 which men talk, but which ends in smoke; it is true--\\divine\\
 \\strength\\. Why does Joseph stand against temptation? Because
 God gives him aid. There is nought that we can do without the
 power of God. All true strength comes from "the mighty God of
 Jacob." Notice in what a \\blessedly familiar way\\ God gives
 this strength to Joseph--"The arms of his hands were made strong
 by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob." Thus God is
 represented as putting his hands on Joseph's hands, placing his
 arms on Joseph's arms. Like as a father teaches his children, so
 the Lord teaches them that fear him. He puts his arms upon them.
 Marvellous condescension! God Almighty, Eternal, Omnipotent,
 stoops from his throne and lays his hand upon the child's hand,
 stretching his arm upon the arm of Joseph, that he may be made
 strong! This strength was also covenant strength, for it is
 ascribed to "the mighty \\God of Jacob\\." Now, wherever you
 read of the God of Jacob in the Bible, you should remember the
 covenant with Jacob. Christians love to think of God's covenant.
 All the power, all the grace, all the blessings, all the
 mercies, all the comforts, all the things we have, flow to us
 from the well-head, through the covenant. If there were no
 covenant, then we should fail indeed; for all grace proceeds
 from it, as light and heat from the sun. No angels ascend or
 descend, save upon that ladder which Jacob saw, at the top of
 which stood a covenant God. Christian, it may be that the
 archers have sorely grieved you, and shot at you, and wounded
 you, but still your bow abides in strength; be sure, then, to
 ascribe all the glory to Jacob's God.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 27957
 # Nu 21:1 - 22:41 * Daily Bible Reading
27858
 February 23                                              Morning

 \\"I will never leave thee."\\
                                                   --Hebrews 13:5

    No promise is of private interpretation. Whatever God has
 said to any one saint, he has said to all. When he opens a well
 for one, it is that all may drink. When he openeth a granary-
 door to give out food, there may be some one starving man who is
 the occasion of its being opened, but all hungry saints may come
 and feed too. Whether he gave the word to Abraham or to Moses,
 matters not, O believer; he has given it to thee as one of the
 covenanted seed. There is not a high blessing too lofty for
 thee, nor a wide mercy too extensive for thee. Lift up now thine
 eyes to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west,
 for all this is thine. Climb to Pisgah's top, and view the
 utmost limit of the divine promise, for the land is all thine
 own. There is not a brook of living water of which thou mayst
 not drink. If the land floweth with milk and honey, eat the
 honey and drink the milk, for both are thine. Be thou bold to
 believe, for he hath said, "I will never leave \\thee\\, nor
 forsake \\thee\\."In this promise, God gives to his people
 everything. "\\I\\ will never leave thee." Then no attribute of
 God can cease to be engaged for us. Is he mighty? He will show
 himself strong on the behalf of them that trust him. Is he love?
 Then with lovingkindness will he have mercy upon us. Whatever
 attributes may compose the character of Deity, every one of them
 to its fullest extent shall be engaged on our side. To put
 everything in one, there is nothing you can want, there is
 nothing you can ask for, there is nothing you can need in time
 or in eternity, there is nothing living, nothing dying, there is
 nothing in this world, nothing in the next world, there is
 nothing now, nothing at the resurrection-morning, nothing in
 heaven which is not contained in this text--"I will never leave
 thee, nor forsake thee."

 Evening Reading .......................................... 27958
 # Nu 23:1 - 25:18 * Daily Bible Reading
27859
 February 24                                              Morning

 \\"I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there\\
 \\shall be showers of blessing."\\
                                                  --Ezekiel 34:26

    Here is \\sovereign mercy\\--"I will give them the shower in
 its season." Is it not sovereign, \\divine\\ mercy?--for who can
 say, "I will give them showers," except God? There is only one
 voice which can speak to the clouds, and bid them beget the
 rain. Who sendeth down the rain upon the earth? Who scattereth
 the showers upon the green herb? Do not I, the Lord? So grace is
 the gift of God, and is not to be created by man. It is also
 \\needed\\ grace. What would the ground do without showers? You
 may break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but what can you do
 without the rain? As absolutely needful is the divine blessing.
 In vain you labour, until God the plenteous shower bestows, and
 sends salvation down. Then, it is \\plenteous grace\\. "I will
 send them showers." It does not say, "I will send them drops,"
 but "showers." So it is with grace. If God gives a blessing, he
 usually gives it in such a measure that there is not room enough
 to receive it. Plenteous grace! Ah! we want plenteous grace to
 keep us humble, to make us prayerful, to make us holy; plenteous
 grace to make us zealous, to preserve us through this life, and
 at last to land us in heaven. We cannot do without saturating
 showers of grace. Again, it is \\seasonable grace\\. "I will
 cause the shower to come down \\in his season\\." What is thy
 season this morning? Is it the season of drought? Then that is
 the season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and
 black clouds? Then that is the season for showers. "As thy days
 so shall thy strength be." And here is a \\varied\\ blessing. "I
 will give thee \\showers\\ of blessing." The word is in the
 plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God's
 blessings go together, like links in a golden chain. If he gives
 converting grace, he will also give comforting grace. He will
 send "showers of blessing." Look up to-day, O parched plant, and
 open thy leaves and flowers for a heavenly watering.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 27959
 # Nu 26:1 - 27:23 * Daily Bible Reading
27860
 February 25                                              Morning

 \\"The wrath to come."\\
                                                    --Matthew 3:7

    It is pleasant to pass over a country after a storm has spent
 itself; to smell the freshness of the herbs after the rain has
 passed away, and to note the drops while they glisten like
 purest diamonds in the sunlight. That is the position of a
 Christian. He is going through a land where the storm has spent
 itself upon his Saviour's head, and if there be a few drops of
 sorrow falling, they distil from clouds of mercy, and Jesus
 cheers him by the assurance that they are not for his
 destruction. But how terrible is it to witness the approach of a
 tempest: to note the forewarnings of the storm; to mark the
 birds of heaven as they droop their wings; to see the cattle as
 they lay their heads low in terror; to discern the face of the
 sky as it groweth black, and look to the sun which shineth not,
 and the heavens which are angry and frowning! How terrible to
 await the dread advance of a hurricane--such as occurs,
 sometimes, in the tropics--to wait in terrible apprehension till
 the wind shall rush forth in fury, tearing up trees from their
 roots, forcing rocks from their pedestals, and hurling down all
 the dwelling-places of man! And yet, sinner, this is your
 present position. No hot drops have as yet fallen, but a shower
 of fire is coming. No terrible winds howl around you, but God's
 tempest is gathering its dread artillery. As yet the
 water-floods are dammed up by mercy, but the flood-gates shall
 soon be opened: the thunderbolts of God are yet in his
 storehouse, but lo! the tempest hastens, and how awful shall
 that moment be when God, robed in vengeance, shall march forth
 in fury! Where, where, where, O sinner, wilt thou hide thy head,
 or whither wilt thou flee? O that the hand of mercy may now lead
 you to Christ! He is freely set before you in the gospel: his
 riven side is the rock of shelter. Thou knowest thy need of him;
 believe in him, cast thyself upon him, and then the fury shall
 be overpast for ever.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 27960
 # Nu 28:1 - 29:40 * Daily Bible Reading
27861
 February 26                                              Morning

 \\"Salvation is of the Lord."\\
                                                      --Jonah 2:9

    Salvation is the work of God. It is he alone who quickens the
 soul "dead in trespasses and sins," and it is he also who
 maintains the soul in its spiritual life. He is both "Alpha and
 Omega." "Salvation is of the Lord." If I am prayerful, God makes
 me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God's gifts to me; if I
 hold on in a consistent life, it is because he upholds me with
 his hand. I do nothing whatever towards my own preservation,
 except what God himself first does in me. Whatever I have, all
 my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, that is my own;
 but wherein I act rightly, that is of God, wholly and
 completely. If I have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord's
 strength nerved my arm. Do I live before men a consecrated life?
 It is not I, but Christ who liveth in me. Am I sanctified? I did
 not cleanse myself: God's Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I weaned
 from the world? I am weaned by \\God's\\ chastisements
 sanctified to my good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great
 Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly
 art. I find in God all that I want; but I find in myself nothing
 but sin and misery. "He only is my rock and my salvation." Do I
 feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the
 Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do
 I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that
 manna but Jesus Christ himself incarnate, whose body and whose
 blood I eat and drink? Am I continually receiving fresh increase
 of strength? Where do I gather my might? My help cometh from
 heaven's hills: without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch
 cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more
 can I, except I abide in him. What Jonah learned in the great
 deep, let me learn this morning in my closet: "Salvation is of
 the Lord."

 Evening Reading .......................................... 27961
 # Nu 30:1 - 31:54 * Daily Bible Reading
27862
 February 27                                              Morning

 \\"Thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most\\
 \\High, thy habitation."\\
                                                     --Psalm 91:9

    The Israelites in the wilderness \\were continually exposed\\
 \\to change\\. Whenever the pillar stayed its motion, the tents
 were pitched; but tomorrow, ere the morning sun had risen, the
 trumpet sounded, the ark was in motion, and the fiery, cloudy
 pillar was leading the way through the narrow defiles of the
 mountain, up the hill side, or along the arid waste of the
 wilderness. They had scarcely time to rest a little before they
 heard the sound of "Away! this is not your rest; you must still
 be onward journeying towards Canaan!" They were never long in
 one place. Even wells and palm trees could not detain them. Yet
 they had an abiding home in their God, his cloudy pillar was
 their roof-tree, and its flame by night their household fire.
 They must go onward from place to place, continually changing,
 never having time to settle, and to say, "Now we are secure; in
 this place we shall dwell." "Yet," says Moses, "though we are
 always changing, Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place
 throughout all generations." The Christian knows no change with
 regard to God. He may be rich to-day and poor to-morrow; he may
 be sickly to-day and well to-morrow; he may be in happiness
 to-day, to-morrow he may be distressed--but there is no change
 with regard to his relationship to God. If he loved me
 yesterday, he loves me to-day. My unmoving mansion of rest is my
 blessed Lord. Let prospects be blighted; let hopes be blasted;
 let joy be withered; let mildews destroy everything; I have lost
 nothing of what I have in God. He is "my strong habitation
 whereunto I can continually resort." I am a pilgrim in the
 world, but at home in my God. In the earth I wander, but in God
 I dwell in a quiet habitation.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 27962
 # Nu 32:1 - 33:56 * Daily Bible Reading
27863
 February 28                                              Morning

 \\"My expectation is from him."\\
                                                     --Psalm 62:5

    It is the believer's privilege to use this language. If he is
 looking for aught from the world, it is a poor "expectation"
 indeed. But if he looks to God for the supply of his wants,
 whether in temporal or spiritual blessings, his "expectation"
 will not be a vain one. Constantly he may draw from the bank of
 faith, and get his need supplied out of the riches of God's
 lovingkindness. This I know, I had rather have God for my
 banker than all the Rothschilds. My Lord never fails to honour
 his promises; and when we bring them to his throne, he never
 sends them back unanswered. Therefore I will wait only at his
 door, for he ever opens it with the hand of munificent grace. At
 this hour I will try him anew. But we have "expectations" beyond
 this life. We shall die soon; and then our "expectation is from
 him." Do we not expect that when we lie upon the bed of sickness
 he will send angels to carry us to his bosom? We believe that
 when the pulse is faint, and the heart heaves heavily, some
 angelic messenger shall stand and look with loving eyes upon us,
 and whisper, "Sister spirit, come away!" As we approach the
 heavenly gate, we expect to hear the welcome invitation, "Come,
 ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
 from the foundation of the world." We are expecting harps of
 gold and crowns of glory; we are hoping soon to be amongst the
 multitude of shining ones before the throne; we are looking
 forward and longing for the time when we shall be like our
 glorious Lord--for "We shall see him as he is." Then if these be
 thine "expectations," O my soul, live for God; live with the
 desire and resolve to glorify him from whom cometh all thy
 supplies, and of whose grace in thy election, redemption, and
 calling, it is that thou hast any "expectation" of coming glory.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 27963
 # Nu 34:1 - 35:34 * Daily Bible Reading
27864
 February 29                                              Morning

 \\"With lovingkindness have I drawn thee."\\
                                                  --Jeremiah 31:3

    The thunders of the law and the terrors of judgment are all
 used to bring us to Christ; but the final victory is effected by
 lovingkindness. The prodigal set out to his father's house from
 a sense of need; but his father saw him a great way off, and ran
 to meet him; so that the last steps he took towards his father's
 house were with the kiss still warm upon his cheek, and the
 welcome still musical in his ears.

                "Law and terrors do but harden
                All the while they work alone;
                But a sense of blood-bought pardon
                Will dissolve a heart of stone."

 The Master came one night to the door, and knocked with the iron
 hand of the law; the door shook and trembled upon its hinges;
 but the man piled every piece of furniture which he could find
 against the door, for he said, "I will not admit the man." The
 Master turned away, but by-and-bye he came back, and with his
 own soft hand, using most that part where the nail had
 penetrated, he knocked again--oh, so softly and tenderly. This
 time the door did not shake, but, strange to say, it opened, and
 there upon his knees the once unwilling host was found rejoicing
 to receive his guest. "Come in, come in; thou hast so knocked
 that my bowels are moved for thee. I could not think of thy
 pierced hand leaving its blood-mark on my door, and of thy going
 away houseless, `Thy head filled with dew, and thy locks with
 the drops of the night.' I yield, I yield, thy love has won my
 heart." So in every case: lovingkindness wins the day. What
 Moses with the tablets of stone could never do, Christ does with
 his pierced hand. Such is the doctrine of effectual calling. Do
 I understand it experimentally? Can I say, "He drew me, and I
 followed on, glad to confess the voice divine?" If so, may he
 continue to draw me, till at last I shall sit down at the
 marriage supper of the Lamb.

 Evening Reading .......................................... 27964
 # Nu 36:1 - 36:13 * Daily Bible Reading
27865
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