by J R Miller
January 1
In the beginning God - Genesis 1:1
Everything should begin with God. His should be the first voice we hear each morning, calling us to awake and set forth on the day's journey.
We should begin each year with God. We write in all our dates, A.D., Anno Domini, the year of our Lord. If these are years of our Lord, we should make them really such. It is not enough to write Christ's name on the years; we should make sure that He is in all the year's life - its business, its pleasures, its friendships, its work and play. To start the year with God will give us a heavenly impulse which will make the whole year mean more to us. One wrote at New Year: "I wish you a vision of God that shall make you eager to guide others to the place of vision; a vision of yourself that shall give you charity for the weakness of other; a vision of others that shall reveal their virtues more than their faults; a vision of life that shall make you eager to work, willing to endure, patient in waiting, a master of self and a servant of all."
January 2
Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee. - Deuteronomy 8:2
Memory is a wonderful power. It is a storehouse in which we keep the records of the experiences of our lives. An angel, with invisible ink, writes on a scroll the story of all our days, the things we do, the things of our thoughts. We make our memories for ourselves, writing our own records.
The children are told that the murmuring they hear when they hold a shell to their ears is the echo of the sea's moaning and roar, hiding away in the shell's chambers from the days when it lay on the shore. The music we hear in our hearts, as life goes on, is the treasured echoes of our own life in the days that are gone. The practical suggestion from this is that if we would make our life-music sweet and harmonious, we must live beautifully, purely, unselfishly, helpfully. Sins of youth make bitter memories for after-years. The secret of a happy old age is a well-watched life from childhood. Any unguarded hour may leave a memory which will sadden all the after-years.
January 3
Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. - Philippians 3:13
We ought not to live in the past. No matter how full of blessing and good it is, we may not stay in it. Life is before us, never behind us. If we linger, we shall lose our place, and our fellows will press on and leave us.
The best way to live for to-morrow is to do well the work of to-day; yet the future should always exert an inspiring influence upon us. In the time of discouragement it is the hope of overcoming that brings cheer.
When we are in sorrow it is the promise of comfort that sustains us. In the task-work of school days it is the thought of what manhood will bring of achievement that inspires the student. In the struggles of earthly life it is the larger life of heaven that keeps the heart brave and strong.
We should let the past go, with all it contains of memory and of good, while we turn ever to the future, with hope and courage.
January 4
Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. - Psalm 37:5
Our affairs are forever getting tangled, like threads in a child's hands, and we cannot straighten out the tangles ourselves. We cannot see how anything beautiful or good can come out of our poor living or our feeble striving. Our days are full of disappointments, and our night's rest is broken by anxieties. Yet it is the Christian's privilege to commit all his life's tangles into the hands of Jesus Christ. He can take our broken things and build them up into beauty.
One of the finest windows in a great cathedral is said to have been made out of the fragments of broken glass which the workmen had thrown away as worthless. A skilful hand gathered them up and wrought them into lovely form. Christ can take our failures, our mistakes, our follies, our fragments of living, even our sins, and make them into beautiful life and character.
January 5
I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. - Isaiah 41:13
As a father holds the hand of his little child when it walks, so God holds the hand of His children while they walk in the world's ways. God is ever walking alongside of us. We cannot fail if God is holding our hand. William Canton writes:
"Hold Thou my hands!
In grief and joy, in hope and fear,
Lord, let me feel that Thou art near:
Hold Thou my hands!
"If e'er by doubts
Of Thy good Fatherhood depressed,
I cannot find in Thee my rest,
Hold Thou my hands!
"Hold Thou my hands -
These passionate hands, too quick to smite,
These hands so eager for delight, -
Hold Thou my hands!
"And when at length,
With darkened eyes and fingers cold,
I seek some last loved hand to hold,
Hold Thou my hands!"
January 6
Because thou… hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked for riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies. - 1 Kings 3:11
It is interesting to notice the things God was pleased that Solomon had not chosen. Long life is not the most desirable thing among God's gifts. The completest life ever lived on this earth was only three and thirty years in length.
Riches was another thing Solomon had not chosen. No doubt, if the choice were offered, many would choose money before all things else. There is a Russian legend of one who entered a diamond-mine in search of riches. He filled his pockets with gems, and then, as he went on, threw them away to make room for the larger gems he found. At length he became thirsty, but there was no water. He heard the flow of rivers, but when he came to them they were rivers of gems. At what seemed the sound of a waterfall, he hastened forward, only to find a cascade of diamonds. With all this wealth round him, he was dying of thirst.
January 7
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life - Proverbs 4:23
Every one carries in himself the elements of his own happiness or wretchedness. It is the heart that gives color to our skies and tone to the music we hear. A badly kept heart makes pain for the life. A well-lived life stores away memories which make celestial music to cheer the declining years.
Norman McLeod said: "Nothing makes a man so contented as an experience gathered from a well-watched past." We can insure full happiness only by living no day whose memory will make us ashamed or give us pain, when we sit in the eventide and recall it.
The time to secure a "well-watched past" is while the early days of life are fleeting. We never can change any yesterday. An unholy life yields a harvest of wretchedness in old age. But a life of obedience to God, of faithfulness to duty, of personal purity and uprightness, and of unselfish, Christ-like service, will make old age like a garden of fruit and flowers.
January 8
Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus - Colossians 3:17
Our common work has a great influence in shaping our character. One whose business it is to inspect the work of others, watching mercilessly for errors or flaws, needs to guard himself sedulously, or the critical spirit, so important in his work, will find its way into all his life.
A lady once said to Hogarth that she wished to learn to draw caricature. "Alas! It is not a faculty to be envied," replied the great master of the art. "Take my advice, and never draw caricature. By the long practice of it I have lost the enjoyment of beauty. I never see a face but distorted, and never have the satisfaction to behold the human face divine."
A similar word of caution is needed by all of us, lest our daily occupation and habit influence us in our way of looking at the lives about us. The way to escape the danger is to be full of unjudging love.
January 9
The ark of the Lord continued in the house of Obed-edom…: and the Lord blessed Obed-edom, and all his household. - 2 Samuel 6:11
The same ark which wrought disaster when irreverently touched now brought blessing to a home in which it was received with love. This fragment of history from the olden days suggests to us the blessing of true religion in a home.
Some people think it would be a loss and a hindrance to receive Christ into a house. It would stop some pleasures. It would drive out some amusements. It would interfere with some ambitions. But those who open their doors to Christ will always be rewarded. Religion blesses a home. It sweetens the home life, enriches the home affections, deepens the home joys, lightens and comforts the home sorrows. It brings true prosperity, for the blessing of the Lord maketh rich. It brings protection, for the angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear Him. It opens a door between the earthly home and the heavenly, and God's angels come and go in gentle ministries.
January 10
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. - Proverbs 25:11
It is well to form the habit of saying kindly things. Sincere words of commendation help all true men and women to live more worthily and to achieve better things. They should be spoken, too, while people live. Kind words come too late when they are held back till death has closed the ears and chilled the heart, when words cannot avail to comfort or help.
Too many people speak the wrong words, too - words that hurt, that fall on sensitive feelings like frost on the flowers. They thoughtlessly allude to matters which are of painful interest. They stir up sad or bitter memories in those who are trying to forget them. They lack the tact which always turns conversation into pleasant channels.
We should all learn the art of pleasant speech. It is not a matter of elocution or grammar - it is a matter of heart culture. Love must be the inspirer, and there must be the grace of thoughtfulness in word and tone.
January 11
The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. - Proverbs 4:18
Christian old age should be beautiful. It should have the mellowness of autumn, after the heat and toil of summer. Youth has its beauty, and so has manhood, but there is a loveliness in good old age which is more winning than aught in any other period of life.
"There is a beauty Youth can never know,
With all the lusty radiance of his prime,
A beauty the sole heritage of time,
That gilds the fabric with a sunset glow,
That glorifies the work it soon lays low!
There is a charm in age, well-nigh sublime
That lends new lustre to the poet's rhyme,
As mountain peaks are grander crowned with snow.
How gay the laugh of Youth! But, oh, how brave
The stately weakness of a reverend Age!"
January 12
The merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver. - Proverbs 3:14
There is something that gives better returns than silver or gold in the world's markets. It is better to be wise than to be rich. A proper use of wisdom yields larger and better gains than the best use of money. Wisdom increases continually in the life of him who possesses it.
Take the wisdom of trusting God, and how experience enlarges it! The timid faith of to-day becomes the heroic confidence of to-morrow.
Or take the wisdom of loving others. Only begin it and practice it, and your heart will expand and your hand will acquire new skill in ministering. Many a young person with only a commonplace life, by simple beginning in a small way to help others and do good, has at length attained a measure of helpfulness that is simply amazing.
A sailor boy brought home to his mother a little flower from some foreign land, and all the fuchsias in England are the harvest from that little kindness.
January 13
What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? - Matthew 19:16
This young man had lived a good life. He stood high in the Church and among his neighbors. Then he came to Christ with eagerness, and Jesus, when He saw him, loved him. But his money was his idol.
One Sunday morning a minister found on his pulpit a note reading, "The prayers of this congregation are desired for a man who is growing rich." There is no time when men really need more that there their friends should pray for their souls, than when they are growing rich. Yet if the young ruler had used his money as the Master bade him to do, it would have done good to the poor, it would have become treasure laid up in heaven for the man, and Jesus would have had another follower. The disciples of Jesus used their money so as to make it a blessing. They left all for the sake of their Master. Jesus said: "Every one that hath left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life."
January 14
The Lord hath need of them. - Matthew 21:3
Whatever of ours Jesus asks the use of we should give Him without question. He often wants to use money of ours in His work, and we should never refuse His request. He asks for the use of a book of ours which He wants to have sent to one of His hungry-hearted little ones, who needs just that book. The other day a reclining-chair which had stood unused in a home for two years, since grandmother died, was brought out and sent to a sick man who needed it.
The true temples of God are human hearts in which God would make His home. But sometimes there is no room for Him. In the Temple at Jerusalem Jesus found men doing things that desecrated the place, and He drove them out. He comes to us and would drive out of our hearts everything that defileth.
Jesus was disappointed that morning on His way to Jerusalem when, hungry, He went to the fig-tree for food. Is He ever disappointed when He comes to us hungry?
January 15
Bring him hither to Me. - Matthew 17:17
Visions are given to prepare for tasks. At the foot of the Transfiguration Mount a father was waiting with his distressed boy to have him healed. While we are sitting in rapture at the Lord's Supper somebody is outside with a great need. We do not know how often we fail to help those in need or trouble because we have not enough faith. Jesus is the strong Son of God, and there is nothing He cannot do.
We ought to make the most we can of our life and do all the good we can. It is wrong for any of us, with our splendid abilities, to stay in "contented insignificance." The Master wants us to be great and to do great things. But there are mistaken opinions about what it is to be great. Jesus' disciples thought if they held high positions in the world they would be great. Jesus told them that childlikeness was the highest greatness. We are greatest when we are not aware of being great at all. Simplicity, trust, the absence of ambition, contentment - these are marks of greatness.
January 16
Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? - Matthew 18:21
The Christian way, if one has done us any injury, is to go to him in the spirit of love and talk the matter over with him. Perhaps it is all a misunderstanding, needing only a word of explanation. We are probably as much to blame as the other person is when things go wrong between us and a neighbor.
"There is so much bad in the best of us,
And so much good in the worst of us,
That it hardly behooves any of us
To talk about the rest of us."
Our forgiving is to be unlimited. The rabbis taught that no one should forgive another more than three times. Peter thought he was making the limit great enough when he suggested that the Master's followers should forgive seven times. But Jesus swept away all counting of times, and said a Christian should forgive seventy times seven times.
January 17
I have compassion on the multitude. - Matthew 15:32
No sickness could continue in Christ's presence. From far and near people came with their friends and neighbors - the blind, the lame, the dumb, and not one went away unhealed. Jesus is still the fountain of healing. He uses physicians and means, but He is always the Healer.
Jesus thought not only of people's spiritual needs, but also of their physical wants. The multitude had been three days with him in the desert, where they could not buy food, and were very hungry. Jesus showed consideration for them - He could not send them away fasting. He did not create food enough to four thousand hungry men, but took what they had already and, blessing it, made it enough to supply all their want. We must do what we can, and then God will come and we shall be cared for. We should watch against the influence of wrong teaching. If we let the words of Christ stay in our hearts they will make our lives good, true, pure, holy, and loving.
January 18
These are the things which defile a man. - Matthew 15:20
It is right to have clean hands, but it is more important to have a clean heart. Some people are most punctilious about minute ceremonies, while they pay small heed to the moralities of their lives. It is the inner life that makes character. A bad heart defiles everything; it is a nest of unholy things.
A lady took a dead child's photograph and touched it with her brush until the little one seemed to live in the picture. But in a day or two the face was covered with blotches. There was something on the paper on which the picture had been taken which worked up through the colors and spoiled it. So in many a life there are bad qualities which work up through all outside manners and refinements, and spoil the beauty.
The Syrophenician woman knew she was in the presence of One who could heal her child, and she simply would not go away till she got her plea; her importunity prevailed upon Him. We give up too easily when the answer is slow in coming.
January 19
When Jesus heard of it, He departed thence by ship into a desert place apart. - Matthew 14:13
Jesus loved the Baptist, and was grieved when He died. He sought to get into a quiet place where He might receive God's comfort. Another reason for His going away was that His disciples might get rest. This shows the thoughtfulness of Jesus for His friends. He knows now when we are tired, when our work is too hard for us, or our hours are too long.
When Jesus reached the secluded place He found throngs waiting. Yet He was not impatient with them. He gave up His own rest and set to work at once to relieve their distresses and supply their wants.
The measure of a man's usefulness is the number of people who need him. We say that Christ alone can meet people's needs and feed their hungers. But He would do it through us. The only hands He has for love's ministries are our hands. The only bread He has for human hunger is the bread that is in our baskets. "Give ye them to eat."
January 20
Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. - Matthew 13:46
We can well afford to give up all that we have to get Christ. If we receive the whole world in place of Him, the exchange would be at a fearful loss to us. The only way to get the pearl of great price is to part with the other pearls we have. We cannot keep the other pearls we have. We cannot keep these and get that. Christ is not to be bought for money, and yet we have to give all we have to get Him. The young ruler was told he must sell all he had and take Christ instead. He would not pay the price, and went away sorrowful.
Unbelief hinders even omnipotence, Jesus could not do many mighty works in Nazareth because of the unbelief of the people. His power ever waits on our faith. We do not know what blessings we keep from others by not believing. John the Baptist's death seemed untimely. But he did all that he was sent into the world to do. Each life has its own plan of God, something given it to do. When that is done it is time to die.
January 21
Behold, a sower went forth to sow. - Matthew 13:3
We are all both sowers and fields. Our words, our acts, our influences, as we touch other lives, become seeds. This is true not only of the good things that our lives scatter, but also of the evil. Then each life of ours is a little patch of ground on which other sowers are forever dropping seeds. Every person we talk with, every friendship we cherish, every book we read, sow seeds which will grow and help make the harvest of life for us. Christ is the great sower of good seed. He brings heavenly seeds to drop them on earthly soil.
We should not let ourselves be like the wayside, the beaten road. The good seed has no chance to grow on such soil. We should keep our hearts soft to take each holy impression. We must watch the soil in our patch of ground to keep out the thorns, for if the evil roots are left the good seed will have no chance to grow, and the bad will choke out the good. We should make our hearts deep soil in which the good seed will grow to ripeness.
January 22
When the Pharisees saw it, they said unto Him. - Matthew 12:2
Some people are always watching others, to find fault in them. They seem to think that their business is to keep other people right, and so they forget to look after the wrong things in themselves. We should never forget that our first duty is to do right ourselves. We shall not have to answer for anybody else, but for ourselves we surely shall.
The Sabbath is given to be a blessing to us, not a burden. God does not want us to go hungry on His day. He desires mercy, not sacrifice. The Jews thought Jesus broke the Sabbath in healing the man with the withered hand. But Jesus told them that it was right to heal on the sacred day. It is right for physicians to continue on their rounds of mercy on the Sabbath, and for nurses to stay at their posts with their patients. We need not be afraid to entrust our lives to Christ, even if they are bruised and almost destroyed. No gentle, kindly surgeon ever had such skill in dealing with hurt lives, and He will restore us to beauty.
January 23
Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see. - Matthew 11:4
Even the best men may sometimes doubt. John the Baptist, in his dungeon, began to wonder whether after all Jesus was the Messiah. The right thing to do with our doubts is to take them to Jesus. That is what John did. Christ is very patient with our weakness, and makes plain to us the things that perplex us.
The best evidences of Christ's divinity and Messiahship are the things that Christianity does in the world. Jesus proved to John that He was the Messiah by doing works of kindness to the poor and the troubled.
The fruits of Christianity are the wonderful works Christianity has done in the world - the saving of souls and the blessings that it leaves everywhere. It is a serious responsibility to have the gospel of Christ preached to us. If we accept the message, it brings great good to us. But if we reject it, it would have been better if we had never heard it at all. Christ invites all weary and overburdened ones to come to Him, and promises to give them rest.
January 24
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master. - Matthew 10:25
Jesus does not promise His disciples an easy time. He endured suffering, and we cannot expect better treatment than our Master had. We may be sure always of divine protection.
The strange word about numbering of the hairs of our head means that the smallest things in our lives are included in God's providence.
One of the greatest of Christ's words is that about confessing Him. He wants all His friends to let everybody know that they belong to Him and are on His side. This means more than joining the Church, or getting up in a Christian Endeavor meeting and saying, "I love Christ." We are to confess Him at our business, in society, among the worst people. The promise Jesus gave was that if we own Him in this world He will own us in the other world. It will be a great thing to have Christ own us on the Judgement Day. But we must own Him now, whatever the world says, whatever it may cost, if we would have Him confess us before His Father.
January 25
These twelve Jesus sent forth. - Matthew 10:5
Jesus took twelve men and prepared them so that they could take up His work when He went away and carry it on. He wants all His followers to be apostles. They must be disciples first, learners, and then apostles. We are not ready to go out for Christ till He gives us authority over evil and power to do good. Some one gives this rule for life: "Make yourself good, and make other people happy." Some people try first to make others good, but we should begin with ourselves.
The apostles were to be the helpers of others in every way they could be. They were to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Jesus gives us power to do whatever He wants us to do. Jesus sent His disciples out amid dangers. We need never fear to go where Christ send us. Sometimes the only way to save our life is to lose it.
"‘Tis man's perdition to be safe,
When for the truth he ought to die."
January 26
Come and lay Thy hand upon her, and she shall live. - Matthew 9:18
There is nothing that Jesus cannot do. This ruler had not the slightest doubt that the Master could heal his dying child. We may have just as strong faith in Christ when any of ours are sick. If our friend dies, we know that that was the way of God's love for him. He could have spared his life if that had been best.
Much of Christ's work of love was wayside ministry. He was hastening with the ruler to heal his dying child when the woman touched His garment's hem.
Good people are always giving out help in even unconscious ways. As they go about performing their common tasks, those who come near them receive help from merely touching the hem of their garments. Even Christ's power to heal and help waits on faith. The blind men cried, "Have mercy on us," but before He opened their eyes Jesus asked them, "Believe ye that I am able to do this?" If they had said "No," they would not have been cured. Many prayers of our fail because we do not believe.
January 27
If thou wilt, Thou canst. - Matthew 8:2
We get from Christ according to our faith. The leper said, "If Thou wilt, Thou canst." That was royal believing, and at once Jesus said, "I will." There was a splendid faith also in the centurion. He showed humility in not thinking himself worthy to have Jesus come under his roof, and faith in saying that a mere word of the Master's would be enough. The visit of Jesus to Peter's house was interesting. There was a woman sick there. Jesus touched her hand and the fever left her.
There are other fevers besides those we ask physicians to treat - fevers of discontent, of anxiety, of fretfulness, of sorrow. If only we would have the touch of Christ on our head it would cool our fever and quiet our hearts. On the boat we see the peace of Jesus in His sleeping in the storm. Then we see His power in His quieting of the winds and waves. We may trust Him in earth's wildest tempest. No harm can come to us on any sea if He is with us in the boat.
January 28
Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. - Matthew 24:42
There is only one thing that we are absolutely sure of in the future - Christ's coming. We do not know when or how He will come. We only know that He will come.
"The Master will knock at my door some night,
And there, in the silence hushed and dim,
Will wait for my coming with lamp alight,
To open immediately to Him."
"If this is the only thing foretold
Of all my future life, then I pray
That quietly watchful I may hold
The key of a golden faith each day
Fast shut in my grasp, that, when I hear
His step, be it at dawn or at midnight dim,
Straightway may I arise without a fear,
And open immediately to Him."
January 29
Without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. - Romans 1:9
We do not pray enough for others. The tendency of closet or solitary prayer is that we pray only for ourselves. We need to guard against this. No selfishness is quite so unworthy as selfishness when we are at God's throne of grace. Especially should we pray for our friends. No matter how much we may do for them in practical ways, ministering to them, advancing their interests, speaking on their behalf, showing them kindnesses, if we do not pray for them we have failed in friendship's most important duty.
We need to give careful thought also to the matter of our prayers for our friends - the things we ask for them. If they are sick, we ask that they may recover, perhaps not thinking to ask also that blessing may come to them in and through their sickness. Our prayers for those we love should always include the things that are indeed the best - God's best: that God's will may be done in them, that they may grow in grace and have the image of Christ imprinted on their lives.
January 30
Ye know not what ye ask. - Matthew 20:22
Every true mother wishes noble things for her children. Not always, however, do even mothers seek the really best things for their children.
The mother of James and John seems to have had only an earthly dream for her sons, although it was the honor of being in Christ's kingdom she craved for them. Christian mothers should think of the things of divine love and grace for their children.
Christ takes our mistaken prayers and answers them in a far better way than we dreamed of when we made them. He gave the brothers high places, though they were not such high places as they had in mind. We ask Him to bless us, and He does bless us, but sometimes through the loss of the very things which we thought He would give us. The two disciples did not shrink from the Master's cup and baptism, though they did not know that day that what they were asking they could not accept. They knew later, and did not then fail their Master.
January 31
Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. - Romans 13:10
We help or hurt others, according as we stand or falter in life's trials. We do not know what of the strength it may mean to other souls for us to be faithful any little hour. We do not know what eyes are upon us in the life of the common days, with eager desire to learn if indeed there be grace in Christ to help one to be true. Our victory means for others a brief in Christ's power to help, and our failure would mean the weakening of faith and hope in them. We never know what interests of others may depend on our being faithful and firm any hour.
"Oh, if our brother's blood cry out to us,
How shall we meet Thee, who hast loved us all -
Thee whom we never loved, not loving him?
The unloving cannot chant with seraphim,
Bear harp of gold or palm victorious,
Or face the Vision Beatifical."
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