Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/topics27/t29100

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29101
 August 1                                                 Evening

 \\"Thou crownest the year with thy goodness."\\
                                                    --Psalm 65:11

    All the year round, every hour of every day, God is richly
 blessing us; both when we sleep and when we wake his mercy waits
 upon us. The sun may leave us a legacy of darkness, but our God
 never ceases to shine upon his children with beams of love. Like
 a river, his lovingkindness is always flowing, with a fulness
 inexhaustible as his own nature. Like the atmosphere which
 constantly surrounds the earth, and is always ready to support
 the life of man, the benevolence of God surrounds all his
 creatures; in it, as in their element, they live, and move, and
 have their being. Yet as the sun on summer days gladdens us with
 beams more warm and bright than at other times, and as rivers
 are at certain seasons swollen by the rain, and as the
 atmosphere itself is sometimes fraught with more fresh, more
 bracing, or more balmy influences than heretofore, so is it with
 the mercy of God; it hath its golden hours; its days of
 overflow, when the Lord magnifieth his grace before the sons of
 men. Amongst the blessings of the nether springs, \\the joyous\\
 \\days of harvest\\ are a special season of excessive favour. It
 is the glory of autumn that the ripe gifts of providence are
 then abundantly bestowed; it is the mellow season of
 realization, whereas all before was but hope and expectation.
 Great is the joy of harvest. Happy are the reapers who fill
 their arms with the liberality of heaven. The Psalmist tells us
 that the harvest is the crowning of the year. Surely these
 crowning mercies call for crowning thanksgiving! Let us render
 it by the \\inward emotions of gratitude\\. Let our hearts be
 warmed; let our spirits remember, meditate, and think upon this
 goodness of the Lord. Then let us \\praise him with our lips\\,
 and laud and magnify his name from whose bounty all this
 goodness flows. Let us glorify God by yielding \\our gifts\\ to
 his cause. A practical proof of our gratitude is a special
 thank-offering to the Lord of the harvest.

29102
 August 2                                                 Evening

 \\"So she gleaned in the field until even."\\
                                                      --Ruth 2:17

    Let me learn from Ruth, the gleaner. As she went out to
 gather the ears of corn, so must I go forth into the fields of
 prayer, meditation, the ordinances, and hearing the word to
 gather spiritual food. \\The gleaner gathers her portion ear by\\
 \\ear\\; her gains are little by little: so must I be content to
 search for single truths, if there be no greater plenty of them.
 Every ear helps to make a bundle, and every gospel lesson
 assists in making us wise unto salvation. \\The gleaner keeps\\
 \\her eyes open\\: if she stumbled among the stubble in a dream,
 she would have no load to carry home rejoicingly at eventide. I
 must be watchful in religious exercises lest they become
 unprofitable to me; I fear I have lost much already--O that I
 may rightly estimate my opportunities, and glean with greater
 diligence. \\The gleaner stoops for all she finds\\, and so
 must I. High spirits criticize and object, but lowly minds glean
 and receive benefit. A humble heart is a great help towards
 profitably hearing the gospel. The engrafted soul-saving word is
 not received except with meekness. A stiff back makes a bad
 gleaner; down, master pride, thou art a vile robber, not to be
 endured for a moment. \\What the gleaner gathers she holds\\: if
 she dropped one ear to find another, the result of her day's
 work would be but scant; she is as careful to retain as to
 obtain, and so at last her gains are great. How often do I
 forget all that I hear; the second truth pushes the first out of
 my head, and so my reading and hearing end in much ado about
 nothing! Do I feel duly the importance of storing up the truth?
 A hungry belly makes the gleaner wise; if there be no corn in
 her hand, there will be no bread on her table; she labours under
 the sense of necessity, and hence her tread is nimble and her
 grasp is firm; I have even a greater necessity, Lord, help me to
 feel it, that it may urge me onward to glean in fields which
 yield so plenteous a reward to diligence.

29103
 August 3                                                 Evening

 \\"But as he went."\\
                                                      --Luke 8:42

    Jesus is passing through the throng to the house of Jairus,
 to raise the ruler's dead daughter; but he is so profuse in
 goodness that he works another miracle while upon the road.
 While yet this rod of Aaron bears the blossom of an
 unaccomplished wonder, it yields the ripe almonds of a perfect
 work of mercy. It is enough for us, if we have some one purpose,
 straightway to go and accomplish it; it were imprudent to expend
 our energies by the way. Hastening to the rescue of a drowning
 friend, we cannot afford to exhaust our strength upon another in
 like danger. It is enough for a tree to yield one sort of fruit,
 and for a man to fulfil his own peculiar calling. But our Master
 knows no limit of power or boundary of mission. He is so
 prolific of grace, that like the sun which shines as it rolls
 onward in its orbit, his path is radiant with lovingkindness. He
 is a swift arrow of love, which not only reaches its ordained
 target, but perfumes the air through which it flies. Virtue is
 evermore going out of Jesus, as sweet odours exhale from
 flowers; and it always will be emanating from him, as water from
 a sparkling fountain. What delightful encouragement this truth
 affords us! If our Lord is so ready to heal the sick and bless
 the needy, then, my soul, be not thou slow to put thyself in his
 way, that he may smile on thee. Be not slack in asking, if he be
 so abundant in bestowing. Give earnest heed to his word now, and
 at all times, that Jesus may speak through it to thy heart.
 Where he is to be found there make thy resort, that thou mayst
 obtain his blessing. When he is present to heal, may he not heal
 thee? But surely he is present even now, for he always comes to
 hearts which need him. And dost not thou need him? Ah, \\he\\
 knows how much! Thou Son of David, turn thine eye and look upon
 the distress which is now before thee, and make thy suppliant
 whole.

29104
 August 4                                                 Evening

 \\"I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in\\
 \\all the labours of your hands."\\
                                                    --Haggai 2:17

   How destructive is the hail to the standing crops, beating out
 the precious grain upon the ground! How grateful ought we to be
 when the corn is spared so terrible a ruin! Let us offer unto
 the Lord thanksgiving. Even more to be dreaded are those
 mysterious destroyers--smut, bunt, rust, and mildew. These turn
 the ear into a mass of soot, or render it putrid, or dry up the
 grain, and all in a manner so beyond all human control that the
 farmer is compelled to cry, "This is the finger of God."
 Innumerable minute fungi cause the mischief, and were it not for
 the goodness of God, the rider on the black horse would soon
 scatter famine over the land. Infinite mercy spares the food of
 men, but in view of the active agents which are ready to destroy
 the harvest, right wisely are we taught to pray, "Give us this
 day our daily bread." The curse is abroad; we have constant need
 of the blessing. When blight and mildew come they are
 chastisements from heaven, and men must learn to hear the rod,
 and him that hath appointed it.

    Spiritually, mildew is no uncommon evil. When our work is
 most promising this blight appears. We hoped for many
 conversions, and lo! a general apathy, an abounding worldliness,
 or a cruel hardness of heart! There may be no open sin in those
 for whom we are labouring, but there is a deficiency of
 sincerity and decision sadly disappointing our desires. We learn
 from this our dependence upon the Lord, and the need of prayer
 that no blight may fall upon our work. Spiritual pride or sloth
 will soon bring upon us the dreadful evil, and only the Lord of
 the harvest can remove it. Mildew may even attack our own
 hearts, and shrivel our prayers and religious exercises. May it
 please the great Husbandman to avert so serious a calamity.
 Shine, blessed Sun of Righteousness, and drive the blights away.

29105
 August 5                                                 Evening

 \\"Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?"\\
                                                   --Numbers 32:6

    Kindred has its obligations. The Reubenites and Gadites would
 have been unbrotherly if they had claimed the land which had
 been conquered, and had left the rest of the people to fight for
 their portions alone. We have received much by means of the
 efforts and sufferings of the saints in years gone by, and if we
 do not make some return to the church of Christ by giving her
 our best energies, we are unworthy to be enrolled in her ranks.
 Others are combating the errors of the age manfully, or
 excavating perishing ones from amid the ruins of the fall, and
 if we fold our hands in idleness we had need be warned, lest the
 curse of Meroz fall upon us. The Master of the vineyard saith,
 "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" What is the idler's
 excuse? Personal service of Jesus becomes all the more the duty
 of all because it is cheerfully and abundantly rendered by some.
 The toils of devoted missionaries and fervent ministers shame us
 if we sit still in indolence. Shrinking from trial is the
 temptation of those who are at ease in Zion: they would fain
 escape the cross and yet wear the crown; to them the question
 for this evening's meditation is very applicable. If the most
 precious are tried in the fire, are we to escape the crucible?
 If the diamond must be vexed upon the wheel, are we to be made
 perfect without suffering? Who hath commanded the wind to cease
 from blowing because our bark is on the deep? Why and wherefore
 should we be treated better than our Lord? The firstborn felt
 the rod, and why not the younger brethren? It is a cowardly
 pride which would choose a downy pillow and a silken couch for a
 soldier of the cross. Wiser far is he who, being first resigned
 to the divine will, groweth by the energy of grace to be pleased
 with it, and so learns to gather lilies at the cross foot, and,
 like Samson, to find honey in the lion.

29106
 August 6                                                 Evening

 \\"Let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and\\
 \\Amen."\\
                                                    --Psalm 72:19

    This is a large petition. To intercede for a whole city needs
 a stretch of faith, and there are times when a prayer for one
 man is enough to stagger us. But how far-reaching was the
 psalmist's dying intercession! How comprehensive! How sublime!
 "Let the whole earth be filled with his glory." It doth not
 exempt a single country however crushed by the foot of
 superstition; it doth not exclude a single nation however
 barbarous. For the cannibal as well as for the civilized, for
 all climes and races this prayer is uttered: the whole circle of
 the earth it encompasses, and omits no son of Adam. We must be
 up and doing for our Master, or we cannot honestly offer such a
 prayer. The petition is not asked with a sincere heart unless we
 endeavour, as God shall help us, to extend the kingdom of our
 Master. Are there not some who \\neglect\\ both to plead and to
 labour? Reader, is it \\your\\ prayer? Turn your eyes to
 Calvary. Behold the Lord of Life nailed to a cross, with the
 thorn-crown about his brow, with bleeding head, and hands, and
 feet. What! can you look upon this miracle of miracles, the
 death of the Son of God, without feeling within your bosom a
 marvellous adoration that language never can express? And when
 you feel the blood applied to your conscience, and know that he
 has blotted out your sins, \\you are not a man\\ unless you
 start from your knees and cry, "Let the whole earth be filled
 with his glory; Amen, and Amen." Can you bow before the
 Crucified in loving homage, and not wish to see your Monarch
 master of the world? Out on you if you can pretend to love your
 Prince, and desire not to see him the universal ruler. Your
 piety is worthless unless it leads you to wish that the same
 mercy which has been extended to you may bless the whole world.
 Lord, it is harvest-time, put in thy sickle and reap.

29107
 August 7                                                 Evening

 \\"Satan hindered us."\\
                                           --1 Thessalonians 2:18

    Since the first hour in which goodness came into conflict
 with evil, it has never ceased to be true in spiritual
 experience, that Satan hinders us. From all points of the
 compass, all along the line of battle, in the vanguard and in
 the rear, at the dawn of day and in the midnight hour, Satan
 hinders us. If we toil in the field, he seeks to break the
 ploughshare; if we build the wall, he labours to cast down the
 stones; if we would serve God in suffering or in conflict--
 everywhere Satan hinders us. He hinders us when we are first
 coming to Jesus Christ. Fierce conflicts we had with Satan when
 we first looked to the cross and lived. Now that we are saved,
 he endeavours to hinder the completeness of our personal
 character. You may be congratulating yourself, "I have hitherto
 walked consistently; no man can challenge my integrity." Beware
 of boasting, for your virtue will yet be tried; Satan will
 direct his engines against that very virtue for which you are
 the most famous. If you have been hitherto a firm believer, your
 faith will ere long be attacked; if you have been meek as Moses,
 expect to be tempted to speak unadvisedly with your lips. The
 birds will peck at your ripest fruit, and the wild boar will
 dash his tusks at your choicest vines. Satan is sure to hinder
 us when we are earnest in prayer. He checks our importunity,
 and weakens our faith in order that, if possible, we may miss
 the blessing. Nor is Satan less vigilant in obstructing
 Christian effort. There was never a revival of religion without
 a revival of his opposition. As soon as Ezra and Nehemiah begin
 to labour, Sanballat and Tobiah are stirred up to hinder them.
 What then? We are not alarmed because Satan hindereth us, for it
 is a proof that we are on the Lord's side, and are doing the
 Lord's work, and in his strength we shall win the victory, and
 triumph over our adversary.

29108
 August 8                                                 Evening

 \\"All things are possible to him that believeth."\\
                                                      --Mark 9:23

    Many professed Christians are always doubting and fearing,
 and they forlornly think that this is the necessary state of
 believers. This is a mistake, for "all things are possible to
 him that believeth"; and it is possible for us to mount into a
 state in which a doubt or a fear shall be but as a bird of
 passage flitting across the soul, but never lingering there.
 When you read of the high and sweet communions enjoyed by
 favoured saints, you sigh and murmur in the chamber of your
 heart, "Alas! these are not for me." O climber, if thou hast but
 faith, thou shalt yet stand upon the sunny pinnacle of the
 temple, for "all things are possible to him that believeth." You
 hear of exploits which holy men have done for Jesus; what they
 have enjoyed of him; how much they have been like him; how they
 have been able to endure great persecutions for his sake; and
 you say, "Ah! as for me, I am but a worm; I can never attain to
 this." But there is nothing which one saint was, that you may
 not be. There is no elevation of grace, no attainment of
 spirituality, no clearness of assurance, no post of duty, which
 is not open to you if you have but the power to believe. Lay
 aside your sackcloth and ashes, and rise to the dignity of your
 true position; you are little in Israel because you will be so,
 not because there is any necessity for it. It is not meet that
 thou shouldst grovel in the dust, O child of a King. Ascend!
 The golden throne of assurance is waiting for you! The crown of
 communion with Jesus is ready to bedeck your brow. Wrap
 yourself in scarlet and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every
 day; for if thou believest, thou mayst eat the fat of kidneys of
 wheat; thy land shall flow with milk and honey, and thy soul
 shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. Gather golden
 sheaves of grace, for they await thee in the fields of faith.
 \\"All things are possible to him that believeth."\\

29109
 August 9                                                 Evening

 \\"He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast\\
 \\seven devils."\\
                                                      --Mark 16:9

    Mary of Magdala was \\the victim of a fearful evil\\. She was
 possessed by not one devil only, but seven. These dreadful
 inmates caused much pain and pollution to the poor frame in
 which they had found a lodging. Hers was a hopeless, horrible
 case. She could not help herself, neither could any human
 succour avail. But Jesus passed that way, and unsought, and
 probably even resisted by the poor demoniac, he uttered the word
 of power, and Mary of Magdala became \\a trophy of the healing\\
 \\power of Jesus\\. All the seven demons left her, left her
 never to return, forcibly ejected by the Lord of all. What a
 blessed deliverance! What a happy change! From delirium to
 delight, from despair to peace, from hell to heaven! Straightway
 she became \\a constant follower of Jesus\\, catching his every
 word, following his devious steps, sharing his toilsome life;
 and withal she became \\his generous helper\\, first among that
 band of healed and grateful women who ministered unto him of
 their substance. When Jesus was lifted up in crucifixion, Mary
 remained \\the sharer of his shame\\: we find her first
 beholding from afar, and then drawing near to the foot of the
 cross. She could not die on the cross with Jesus, but she stood
 as near it as she could, and when his blessed body was taken
 down, she watched to see how and where it was laid. She was
 \\the faithful and watchful believer\\, last at the sepulchre
 where Jesus slept, first at the grave whence he arose. Her holy
 fidelity made her \\a favoured beholder of her beloved\\
 \\Rabboni\\, who deigned to call her by her name, and to make
 her \\his messenger of good news\\ to the trembling disciples
 and Peter. Thus grace found her a maniac and made her a
 minister, cast out devils and gave her to behold angels,
 delivered her from Satan, and united her for ever to the Lord
 Jesus. May I also be such a miracle of grace!

29110
 August 10                                                Evening

 \\"The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins."\\
                                                    --Matthew 9:6

    Behold one of the great Physician's mightiest arts: he has
 power to forgive sin! While here he lived below, before the
 ransom had been paid, before the blood had been literally
 sprinkled on the mercy-seat, he had power to forgive sin. Hath
 he not power to do it now that he hath died? What power must
 dwell in him who to the utmost farthing has faithfully
 discharged the debts of his people! He has boundless power now
 that he has finished transgression and made an end of sin. If ye
 doubt it, see him rising from the dead! behold him in ascending
 splendour raised to the right hand of God! Hear him pleading
 before the eternal Father, pointing to his wounds, urging the
 merit of his sacred passion! What power to forgive is here! "He
 hath ascended on high, and received gifts for men." "He is
 exalted on high to give repentance and remission of sins." The
 most crimson sins are removed by the crimson of his blood. At
 this moment, dear reader, whatever thy sinfulness, Christ has
 power to pardon, power to pardon \\thee\\, and millions such as
 thou art. A word will speak it. He has nothing more to do to win
 thy pardon; all the atoning work is done. He can, in answer to
 thy tears, forgive thy sins today, and make thee know it. He can
 breathe into thy soul at this very moment a peace with God which
 passeth all understanding, which shall spring from perfect
 remission of thy manifold iniquities. Dost thou believe that? I
 trust thou believest it. Mayst thou experience now the power of
 Jesus to forgive sin! Waste no time in applying to the
 Physician of souls, but hasten to him with words like these:--

               "Jesus! Master! hear my cry;
               Save me, heal me with a word;
               Fainting at thy feet I lie,
               Thou my whisper'd plaint hast heard."

29111
 August 11                                                Evening

 \\"Everlasting consolation."\\
                                           --2 Thessalonians 2:16

    "Consolation." There is music in the word: like David's harp,
 it charms away the evil spirit of melancholy. It was a
 distinguished  honour to Barnabas to be called "the son of
 consolation"; nay, it is one of the illustrious names of a
 greater than Barnabas, for the Lord Jesus is "the consolation of
 Israel." "\\Everlasting\\ consolation"--here is the cream of
 all, for the eternity of comfort is the crown and glory of it.
 What is this "everlasting consolation"? It includes a sense of
 pardoned sin. A Christian man has received in his heart the
 witness of the Spirit that his iniquities are put away like a
 cloud, and his transgressions like a thick cloud. If sin be
 pardoned, is not that an everlasting consolation? Next, the Lord
 gives his people an abiding sense of acceptance in Christ. The
 Christian knows that God looks upon him as standing in union
 with Jesus. Union to the risen Lord is a consolation of the most
 abiding order; it is, in fact, everlasting. Let sickness
 prostrate us, have we not seen hundreds of believers as happy in
 the weakness of disease as they would have been in the strength
 of hale and blooming health? Let death's arrows pierce us to the
 heart, our comfort dies not, for have not our ears full often
 heard the songs of saints as they have rejoiced because the
 living love of God was shed abroad in their hearts in dying
 moments? Yes, a sense of acceptance in the Beloved is an
 everlasting consolation. Moreover, the Christian has a
 conviction of his security. God has promised to save those who
 trust in Christ: the Christian does trust in Christ, and he
 believes that God will be as good as his word, and will save
 him. He feels that he is safe by virtue of his being bound up
 with the person and work of Jesus.
29112
 August 12                                                Evening

 \\"The bow shall be seen in the cloud."\\
                                                   --Genesis 9:14

    The rainbow, the symbol of the covenant with Noah, is typical
 of our Lord Jesus, who is the Lord's witness to the people. When
 may we \\expect to see the token of the covenant\\? The rainbow
 is only to be seen painted upon a \\cloud\\. When the sinner's
 conscience is dark with clouds, when he remembers his past sin,
 and mourneth and lamenteth before God, Jesus Christ is revealed
 to him as the covenant Rainbow, displaying all the glorious hues
 of the divine character and betokening peace. To the believer,
 when his trials and temptations surround him, it is sweet to
 behold the person of our Lord Jesus Christ--to see him bleeding,
 living, rising, and pleading for us. God's rainbow is hung over
 the cloud of our sins, our sorrows, and our woes, to prophesy
 deliverance. Nor does a \\cloud\\ alone give a rainbow, there
 must be \\the crystal drops\\ to reflect the light of the sun.
 So, our sorrows must not only threaten, but they must really
 fall upon us. There had been no Christ for us if the vengeance
 of God had been merely a threatening cloud: punishment must fall
 in terrible drops upon the Surety. Until there is a \\real\\
 anguish in the sinner's conscience, there is no Christ for him;
 until the chastisement which he feels becomes grievous, he
 cannot see Jesus. But there must also be a sun; for clouds and
 drops of rain make not rainbows unless the sun shineth. Beloved,
 our God, who is as the sun to us, always shines, but we do not
 always see him--clouds hide his face; but no matter what drops
 may be falling, or what clouds may be threatening, if \\he\\
 does but shine there will be a rainbow at once. It is said that
 when we see the rainbow the shower is over. Certain it is, that
 when Christ comes, our troubles remove; when we behold Jesus,
 our sins vanish, and our doubts and fears subside. When Jesus
 walks the waters of the sea, how profound the calm!

29113
 August 13                                                Evening

 \\"And I will remember my covenant."\\
                                                   --Genesis 9:15

    Mark the form of the promise. God does not say, "And when ye
 shall look upon the bow, and \\ye\\ shall remember my covenant,
 \\then\\ I will not destroy the earth," but it is gloriously
 put, not upon \\our\\ memory, which is fickle and frail, but
 upon \\God's\\ memory, which is infinite and immutable. "The bow
 shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may
 remember the everlasting covenant." Oh! it is not my remembering
 God, it is God's remembering \\me\\ which is the ground of my
 safety; it is not my laying hold of his covenant, but his
 covenant's laying hold on me. Glory be to God! the whole of the
 bulwarks of salvation are secured by divine power, and even the
 minor towers, which we may imagine might have been left to man,
 are guarded by almighty strength. Even the \\remembrance\\ of
 the covenant is not left to our memories, for \\we\\ might
 forget, but our Lord cannot forget the saints whom he has graven
 on the palms of his hands. It is with us as with Israel in
 Egypt; the blood was upon the lintel and the two side-posts, but
 the Lord did not say, "When \\you\\ see the blood I will pass
 over you," but "When \\I\\ see the blood I will pass over you."
 My looking to Jesus brings me joy and peace, but it is God's
 looking to Jesus which secures my salvation and that of all his
 elect, since it is impossible for our God to look at Christ, our
 bleeding Surety, and then to be angry with us for sins already
 punished in him. No, it is not left with \\us\\ even to be saved
 by remembering the covenant. There is no linsey-wolsey here--not
 a single thread of the creature mars the fabric. It is not
 \\of\\ man, neither \\by\\ man, but of the Lord alone. We
 \\should\\ remember the covenant, and we \\shall\\ do it,
 through divine grace; but the hinge of our safety does not hang
 there--it is God's remembering \\us\\, not our remembering
 \\him\\; and hence the covenant is \\an everlasting covenant\\.

29114
 August 14                                                Evening

 \\"I know their sorrows."\\
                                                     --Exodus 3:7

    The child is cheered as he sings, "This my father knows"; and
 shall not we be comforted as we discern that our dear Friend and
 tender soul-husband knows all about us?

    1. \\He is the Physician\\, and if he knows all, there is no
 need that the patient should know. Hush, thou silly, fluttering
 heart, prying, peeping, and suspecting! What thou knowest not
 now, thou shalt know hereafter, and meanwhile Jesus, the beloved
 Physician, knows thy soul in adversities. Why need the patient
 analyze all the medicine, or estimate all the symptoms? This is
 the Physician's work, not mine; it is my business to trust, and
 his to prescribe. If he shall write his prescription in uncouth
 characters which I cannot read, I will not be uneasy on that
 account, but rely upon his unfailing skill to make all plain in
 the result, however mysterious in the working.

    2. \\He is the Master\\, and his knowledge is to serve us
 instead of our own; we are to obey, not to judge: "The servant
 knoweth not what his lord doeth." Shall the architect explain
 his plans to every hodman on the works? If he knows his own
 intent, is it not enough? The vessel on the wheel cannot guess
 to what pattern it shall be conformed, but if the potter
 understands his art, what matters the ignorance of the clay? My
 Lord must not be cross-questioned any more by one so ignorant as
 I am.

    3. \\He is the Head\\. All understanding centres there. What
 judgment has the arm? What comprehension has the foot? All the
 power to know lies in the head. Why should the member have a
 brain of its own when the head fulfils for it every intellectual
 office? Here, then, must the believer rest his comfort in
 sickness, not that he himself can see the end, but that Jesus
 knows all. Sweet Lord, be thou for ever eye, and soul, and head
 for us, and let us be content to know only what thou choosest to
 reveal.


29115
 August 15                                                Evening

 \\"And I will give you an heart of flesh."\\
                                                  --Ezekiel 36:26

    A heart of flesh is known by its \\tenderness concerning\\
 \\sin\\. To have indulged a foul imagination, or to have allowed
 a wild desire to tarry even for a moment, is quite enough to
 make a heart of flesh grieve before the Lord. The heart of stone
 calls a great iniquity nothing, but not so the heart of flesh.

                "If to the right or left I stray,
                That moment, Lord, reprove;
                And let me weep my life away,
                For having grieved thy love"

 The heart of flesh is \\tender of God's will\\. My Lord
 Will-be-will is a great blusterer, and it is hard to subject him
 to God's will; but when the heart of flesh is given, the will
 quivers like an aspen leaf in every breath of heaven, and bows
 like an osier in every breeze of God's Spirit. The natural will
 is cold, hard iron, which is not to be hammered into form, but
 the renewed will, like molten metal, is soon moulded by the hand
 of grace. In the fleshy heart there is \\a tenderness of the\\
 \\affections\\. The hard heart does not love the Redeemer, but
 the renewed heart burns with affection towards him. The hard
 heart is selfish and coldly demands, "Why should I weep for sin?
 Why should I love the Lord?" But the heart of flesh says; "Lord,
 thou knowest that I love thee; help me to love thee more!" Many
 are the privileges of this renewed heart; "'Tis here the Spirit
 dwells, 'tis here that Jesus rests." It is fitted to receive
 every spiritual blessing, and every blessing comes to it. It is
 prepared to yield every heavenly fruit to the honour and praise
 of God, and therefore the Lord delights in it. A tender heart is
 the best defence against sin, and the best preparation for
 heaven. A renewed heart stands on its watchtower looking for the
 coming of the Lord Jesus. Have you this heart of flesh?

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