On Folks We Can't Stand...

IF thy disturbance of mind proceeds from a person who is so disagreeable to thee, that every little action of his annoys or irritates thee, the remedy is to force thyself to love him, and to hold him dear; not only because he is a creature formed by the same sovereign hand as thou art, but also because he offers thee an opportunity (if thou wilt accept it) of becoming like unto thy Lord, who is kind and loving unto all men.
~ Lorenzo Scupoli

The habit of letting every foolish or uncharitable thought, as it arises, find words, has a great deal to do with much evil in the world. Check the habit of uttering the words, and gradually you will find that you check the habit of thought too. A resolution always to turn to some distinctly good thought when a complaining or unkind one arises in the mind, is a great help--as it is to turn every thought condemnatory of our neighbor into a prayer for him. We never can long continue to dislike people for whom we pray.
~ H. L. Sidney Lear

He Will Help You!

Let not your hearts faint; fear not, and do not tremble.

DEUTERONOMY 20:3

THOU wilt be near me, Father, when I fail,
For Thou hast called me now to be Thy son,
And when the foe within me may assail,
Help me to say in Christ, "Thy will be done;"
This ever calms, this ever gives me rest;
There is no fight in which I may not stand,
When Christ doth dwell supreme within my breast,
And Thou uphold'st me with Thy mighty hand.
JONES VERY

THOU must begin low, and be glad of a little light to travel with, and be faithful thereunto; and in faithfulness expect additions of light, and so much power as may help thee to rub on. And though thou may be long weak and little and ready to perish; yet the Father will help thee, and cause His life to shoot up in thee. Thankfully receive the smallest visitation that comes from Him to thy soul; for there is life and peace in it, and death and perplexity in turning from it.
ISAAC PENINGTON

All the evil we do not commit, all the temptations to which we do not consent or which never visit us; all our holy thoughts and good intentions, all our longings after that which is right,--are so many witnesses of His loving kindness towards us. How could He help you thus unless He cared for you?
CHARLES DE CONDREN

Submission, Not Fretting

His heart fretteth against the Lord. PROVERBS 19:3

I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. PSALMS 119:75

AND my soul complaineth not,
For no pain or fears dismay her;
Still she clings to God in faith,
Trusts Him though lie seem to slay her.
'Tis when flesh and blood repine,
Sun of joy, Thou canst not shine,
JOHANN J. WINCKLER

IMPATIENCE and fretting under trial does not increase our suffering, whereas meek submission sanctifies all suffering, and fills the tortured heart with peace amid its anguish. Worship Him in every sorrow; worship Him in deed and word, but still more in humble and loving acceptance of each pang and heartache. Be sure that your mere silent willing endurance is a true act of adoration; and thus, come what may, weariness, pain, desolation, destitution, loneliness, all will carry on His gracious work in you, and, amid the sharpest pressure of suffering, you will be sending up to His eternal throne the precious incense of submission and trust.
ABBÉ GUILLORÉ

Give Him All Things

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
--PSALMS 91:1

AS soon as I woke in the morning I threw myself into the arms of Divine Love as a child does into its father's arms. I rose to serve Him, and to perform my daily labor simply that I might please Him. If I had time for prayer, I fell on my knees in His divine presence, consecrated myself to Him, and begged Him that He would accomplish His holy will perfectly in me and through me, and that He would not permit me to offend Him in the least thing all through the day. I occupied myself with Him and His praise as long as my duties permitted. Very often, I had not leisure to say even so much as the Lord's Prayer during the day; but that did not trouble me. I thought it as much my duty to work for Him as to pray to Him, for He Himself had taught me, that all that I should do for love of Him would be a true prayer. I loved Him and rejoiced in Him. If my occupations required all my attention, 1 had nevertheless my heart turned towards Him; and, as soon as they were finished, I ran to Him again, as to my dearest Friend. When evening came, and every one went to rest, I found mine only in the Divine Love, and fell asleep, still loving and adoring Him.
--ARMELLE NICOLAS

Look up to Him

We need to learn that true Christianity is inseparable from deep joy; and the secret of that joy lies in a continual looking away from all else--away from sin and its ways, and from the manifold hindrances to the good we would do--up to God, His love, His purpose, His will. In proportion as we do look up to Him we shall rejoice, and in proportion as we rejoice in the Lord will our religion have tone and power and attractiveness.

CHARLES GORE

Like Christ

That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 THESSALONIANS 1:12

Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.

ROMANS 13:14

SEND down Thy likeness from above,

And let this my adorning be:

Clothe me with wisdom, patience, love,

With lowliness and purity.

JOACHIM LANGE

EVIDENTLY, in order to be a manifestation of Christ we must be in some way like Him. He is a Christian who follows Christ, who measures all things by the standard of His approbation, who would not willingly say a word which he would not like to have Christ hear, nor do an act which he would not like to have Christ see. He is a Christian who tries to be the kind of neighbor Christ would be, and the kind of citizen Christ would be, and who asks himself in all the alternatives of his business life, and his social life, and his personal life, what would the Master do in this case? The best Christian is he who most reminds the people with whom he lives of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who never reminds anybody of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a Christian at all. --GEORGE HODGES

Your All

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

1 CORINTHIANS 10:31


"'All' means 'all'."
AMY CARMICHAL


IT excepts nothing, "do all"; it instances only the very least things, what our Lord includes under "daily bread," that so we may stop at nothing short of all, but our whole being, doing, thinking, willing, longing, having, loving, may be wrapt up, gathered, concentrated, in the One Will and Good Pleasure of our God. Does any again ask, How can such little things be done to the glory of God? Do them as thou wouldest do them if thou sawest Christ by thee.
E. B. PUSEY

Grace for Others

THE habit of judging is so nearly incurable, and its cure is such an almost interminable process, that we must concentrate ourselves for a long while on keeping it in check, and this check is to be found in kind interpretations. We must come to esteem very lightly our sharp eye for evil, on which perhaps we once prided ourselves as cleverness. We must look at our talent for analysis of character as a dreadful possibility of huge uncharitableness. We are sure to continue to say clever things, so long as we continue to indulge in this analysis; and clever things are equally sure to be sharp and acid. We must grow to something higher, and something truer, than a quickness in detecting evil.

FREDERICK WM. FABER

Grace for the New Year

BE strong and of good courage ...

fear not, nor be dismayed;

for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee;

He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

1 CHRONICLES 28:20

That we should serve in newness of spirit.

ROMANS 7:6

HELP us, O Lord! behold we enter

Upon another year today;

In Thee our hopes and thoughts now centre,

Renew our courage for the way;

New life, new strength, new happiness,

We ask of Thee; oh, hear, and bless !

JOHANN RIST

THE year begins; and all its pages are as blank as the silent years of the life of Jesus Christ. Let us begin it with high resolution; then let us take all its limitations, all its hindrances, its disappointments, its narrow and common-place conditions, and meet them as the Master did in Nazareth, with patience, with obedience, putting ourselves in cheerful subjection, serving our apprenticeship. Who knows what opportunity may come to us this year? Let us live in a great spirit, then we shall be ready for a great occasion.

GEORGE HODGES

My Times are in Thy Hand

My times are in Thy hand, O Lord! And, surely, that is the best. Were I to choose, they should be in no other hands, neither mine own, nor any others. When He withholds mercies or comforts for a season, it is but till the due season. Therefore it is our wisdom and our peace to resign all things into His hands, to have no will nor desires, but only this, that we may still wait for Him. Never was any one who waited for Him miserable with disappointment.

ROBERT LEIGHTON

Taking up Our Cross

And He said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

LUKE 9:23

THE more you accept daily crosses as daily bread, in peace and simplicity, the less they will injure your frail, delicate health; but forebodings and frettings would soon kill you.

FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FeNELON

We speak of the crosses of daily life, and forget that our very language is a witness against us, how meekly we ought to bear them, in the blessed steps of our holy Lord; how in "every cross and care," we ought not to acquiesce simply, but to take them cheerfully,--not cheerfully only but joyfully; yea, if they should even deserve the name of "tribulation," to "joy in tribulation" also, as seeing in them our Father's hand, our Saviour's cross.

E. B. PUSEY

Taking up Our Cross

And He said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

LUKE 9:23

THE more you accept daily crosses as daily bread, in peace and simplicity, the less they will injure your frail, delicate health; but forebodings and frettings would soon kill you.

FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FeNELON

We speak of the crosses of daily life, and forget that our very language is a witness against us, how meekly we ought to bear them, in the blessed steps of our holy Lord; how in "every cross and care," we ought not to acquiesce simply, but to take them cheerfully,--not cheerfully only but joyfully; yea, if they should even deserve the name of "tribulation," to "joy in tribulation" also, as seeing in them our Father's hand, our Saviour's cross.

E. B. PUSEY

Not Forgotten

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?

LUKE 12:6

Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

MATTHEW 10:31

The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon which He hath planted; where the birds make their nests; as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.

PSALMS 104:16,17

IT was a beautiful sight to see the herons come home, rising into the golden sunlight above the hills I could not tell from whence, and sailing on the glorious arches of their wings, on and on--always alone, and each as he came down with outstretched neck and pendent legs ready to settle, taking one last sweep down, then up, on to the summit of the tall Scotch fir, to take a survey of the realm, and, as another approached, plunging into the thick heads of lower trees with a loud good-night to his neighbors, and to all the fair land and water round about him, and a Deo Gratias for all his day's happiness, pleasant unto the ear of his dear God, if not consciously addressed to Him. MY HEAVENLY FATHER CARETH FOR THEM, I AM OF MORE VALUE THAN MANY HERONS.

EDWARD WHITE BENSON