by J R Miller
Up, my drowsing eyes!
Up, my sinking heart!
Up, to Jesus Christ arise!
Claim your part
In all raptures of the skies!
Yet a little while,
Yet a little way,
Saints shall reap and rest and smile
All the day:
Up! Let's trudge another mile!
March 1
Do You Give Thanks?
Honouring God in the presence of all the company, and not omitting a religious duty even in a wild storm. This is one of the finest scenes in Paul’s life. The ship is swinging by its anchors in the tossing waves. The morning is just dimly dawning. The rain is pouring down. The 276 weary and despairing men are gathered on the deck. In their midst Paul arises up and speaks to them cheering and assuring words. Then taking bread, and uncovering his head in the storm, he looks up to heaven and gives thanks to God for the food he holds in his hand, and then begins to eat.
If there ever was an occasion when it would seem that a Christian might omit "asking a blessing" on his food, was it not here? But Paul did not omit it; and who can tell the influence of that act? Yet there are professed Christian families who sit down to their meals in the quiet of home, and never give God thanks!
March 2
Thoughtless Mischief
There is one way in which very many evil stories about people are started. Somebody "supposes" something about another, and tells his suspicion as fact, and it goes forth on its ruinous errand. A good man does an entirely harmless and proper thing, but someone imagines something wrong at the back of it, and tells the creation of his imagination as a fact, and a character is blackened. Many a scandal grows out of what some evil disposed person "supposes."
Our lesson still is the duty of sacredly cherishing the honour and purity of the good names of others. We have no right to "suppose" that another has done a wrong thing, and then start our supposition as a fact. A large part of the miserable gossip which is retailed by idle people in drawing rooms and loitering places is started just in this way. The result is that good names are stained, and endless mischief is wrought. That such satanic work should ever be done by professing Christians is a burning dishonour.
March 3
Conquering Through Patience
Patience is the spirit of endurance, without complaint or bitterness, of whatever things in our life are hard to endure. It is a lesson that is hard to learn, but which is well worth learning at whatever cost. So important is it that our Lord Himself said of it: "In your patience ye shall win your souls." That is, life is a battle in which we fight for our soul. The battle can be won only by patience. To fail in this grace is to lose all. This suggests how necessary it is that we learn the lesson, however hard it may be. Not to learn is to lose the battle of life, and that is the losing of the soul.
March 4
The Purpose Of Trial
One writes wisely: "It would be a poor result of all our anguish and our wrestling if we were nothing but our old selves at the end of it; if we could return to the same blind loves, the same self confident blame, the same light thoughts of human suffering, the same frivolous gossip over blighted human lives, the same feeble sense of the unknown toward which we have sent forth irrepressible yearnings in our loneliness. Let us rather be thankful that our sorrow lives in us as an indestructible force, only changing its form as forces do, and passing from pain into sympathy." The wholesome use of grief is the putting of its pain into new energy of loving and living.
March 5
Christian Liberality
Everything Christian is to be abundant. Our forgiveness is to be the same scale. Jesus did not even mean to limit the number to literally seventy times seven. By using this large number He meant to teach us that there was to be absolutely no limit to our forgiveness. We are not to keep account of the number of times we have to forgive another. God does not keep account of His forgiveness of us, and we are to forgive as He forgives. The time never really comes when we may say: "I cannot forgive you again; I have exhausted the requirements of Christian love."
March 6
The Voice In The Cloud
Many of the greatest revealings of comfort are spoken to God’s children out of the clouds of sorrow or trouble. Many a Christian learns more about God in a brief season of trial than he has ever learned before in years of earthly prosperity. Out of the cloud came the Father’s voice, saying, "This is My Son, My chosen: hear ye Him." This was the Father’s witness to the Messiahship of Jesus. We should learn to listen to Christ and to Him alone.
March 7
Knowing And Doing
"Thou hast answered right: this do and thou shalt live." No doubt Jesus put the emphasis upon the words "answered" and "do." Many people can answer well. The can quote texts about honesty and truthfulness, and yet they are neither honest nor truthful. They talk freely about the love of Christ, which is meek, patient, unselfish, and compassionate, but they do not think of getting any of these qualities into their own life. If doing were as easy as knowing, how good we all should be!
March 8
Cultivate Gladness
It has been said that the habit of seeing always the bright side in life is worth a large income to a man. No doubt this is true. Then it makes life a great deal brighter. None of us are naturally drawn to a gloomy person, who finds everywhere something to complain about; but we are all attracted to one who sees some beauty in everything and delights in that, while he does not fret over what is not bright. Joy is a transfiguring quality. Its secret is a glad heart, for he who has the bird in his heart will see a bird on every bush.
March 9
Unavailing Regrets
With many a lonely heart regret does indeed walk night and day because of the memory of unkind words spoken which can never be unspoken, since the ears that heard them are deaf to every sound of earth. Friends have separated with sharp words or in momentary estrangement through some trivial difference, and have never met again. Death has come suddenly to one of them, or life has set their feet in paths divergent from that moment. Many a bitter and unavailing tear – bitter because unavailing – is shed over the grave of a departed one, by one who would give worlds for a single moment in which to beg forgiveness or seek to make reparation.
March 10
Making The Best Of Things
Why should I hide my one talent in the earth because it is not ten? Why should I make my life a failure in the place allotted to me, while I sit down and dream over unattainable things? Why should I miss my one golden opportunity, however small, while I envy some other one what seems his greater opportunity? Countless people make themselves wretched by vainly trying to grasp far away joys, while they leave untouched and despised the numberless little joys and bright bits of happiness which lie close to their hand. As one has written: "Stretching out his hand to catch the stars, man forgets the flowers at his feet, so beautiful, so fragrant, and so multitudinous and so various." The secret of happiness lies in extracting pleasure from the things we have, while we enter no mad, vain chase after impossible fancies.
March 11
Sacredness Of Life
Those who study carefully our Lord’s life will be struck with His wonderful reverence for human life. He looked upon no one with disdain or contempt. The meanest fragment of humanity that crept into His presence, trampled, torn, stained, defiled, was yet sacred in His eyes. He never despised any human being. And further, He stood before men, not as a king demanding attention, reverence, service, but as one who wished to serve, to help, to lift up. He said He had not come to be ministered unto, but to minister. He never thought of what was due from men to Him, but always of what He could do for them, how He could serve them. How could it be otherwise, since He came to earth solely to save men, and since His heart was so full of love for them?
March 12
Hardship Tests Character
The tree that grows where tempests toss its boughs and bend its trunk, often almost to breaking, is more firmly rooted than the tree which grows in sequestered valley where no storm ever brings stress or strain. The same is true in life. The grandest character is grown in hardship. Effeminacy springs out of luxury. The best men the world ever reared have been brought up in the school of adversity and hardship. Besides, it is no heroism to live patiently where there is no provocation, bravely where there is no danger, calmly where there is nothing to perturb. Not the hermit’s cave, but the heart of busy life, tests as well as makes character. If we can live patiently, lovingly, and cheerfully amid all our frets and irritations day after day, year after year, that is grander heroism than the farthest famed military exploits, for he that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that taketh a city.
March 13
Our Need Of Christ
One reason, no doubt, why our lives are so full of experiences of need is that we may learn to walk with Christ. If earth’s human companionships satisfied us, and if we never lost them, we might not care for Christ’s. If earth’s homes were perfect, and if they never crumbled, we might not grow homesick for heaven.
March 14
The Tenderness Of Love
Our neighbours are about us all the time, needing our love. Indeed, they touch our lives so continually that we must guard our every look, word, and act, lest we hurt some sensitive spirit. Some people seem to forget that other people have feelings. They are constantly saying words and doing things which give pain. True love is thoughtful. We ought to train our hearts to the most delicate sense of kindness that we may never even in jest give pain to any other human being. Our neighbours have hearts, and we owe to every one of them – the beggar we meet on the street, the poor wretch we find crawling in the mire of sin’s debasement, and the enemy who flings his insults in our face, – to everyone we owe the love that is thoughtful, gentle, and gives no hurt.
March 15
Strength In Quiet
It is in the calm quiet life that the truest strength is found. The power that is blessing the world these days comes from the purity and sweetness of gentle mother-love, from the quiet influence of example in faithful fathers, from the patience and unselfishness of devoted sisters, from the tender beauty of innocent child life in homes, above all, from the silent cross and the Divine Spirit’s breathings of gentle stillness. The noiseless agencies are doing the most to bless the world. There is strength in quietness.
March 16
Self-Renunciation
True self denial is the renouncing of self and the yielding of the whole life to the will of Christ. It is self coming down from the life’s throne, laying crown and scepter at the Master’s feet and thenceforth submitting the whole life to His sway. It is living all the while, not to please ourselves, not to advance our own personal interests, but to please our Lord and do His work. It is denying to ourselves anything that is sinful in His sight. It is the glad making of any sacrifice that loyalty to Him requires. It is the giving up of any pleasure or comfort for the good of others which the living out of His spirit may demand. The essential thing is that self gives way altogether to Christ as the motive of life.
March 17
The Divine Love
Wherever we see Christ He is imparting blessing as the sun imparts light and warmth. While He was here on the earth He was always reaching out His hand to give a benediction to some life that sorely needed it. Now it was on the children’s heads, now on the leper, now on the blind eyes, now on the sick, now on the dead, that He laid those gracious hands, and always He left some rich gift of blessing. Then we remember one day when those gentle hands were drawn out by cruel enemies, and with iron nails fastened back on the Cross; yet even then it was in blessing that they were extended, for it was for our sins they were transfixed thus on wood. As we see them thus stretched out as wide as they could reach, the attitude suggests the wideness of the divine mercy. Thus the arms of God are open to the utmost to receive all who will come to seek refuge. There is room for the worst sinners.
March 18
Humility In Giving
If we are wise we will avoid all display in effort to please others. We will simply seek to be our natural selves, with sincere love, with patience, thoughtfulness, and kindliness in our spirits. We will not talk about it – talking about it spoils everything. The best good is done always when we wist not that we are doing good. The greatest help is given to others when they wist not that they are being helped.
March 19
The Blessing Of Quiet
Every true Christian life needs its daily silent times, when all shall be still, when the busy activity of other hours shall cease, and when the heart, in holy hush, shall commune with God. One of the greatest needs in Christian life in these days is more devotion. Ours is not an age of prayer so much as an age of work. The tendency is to action rather than to worship; to busy toil rather than to quiet sitting at the Saviour’s feet to commune with Him. The keynote of our present Christian life is consecration, which is understood to mean devotion to active service. On every hand we are incited to work. Our zeal is stirred by every inspiring incentive. The calls to duty come to us from a thousand earnest voices.
March 20
The Sympathy Of Experience
Sympathy is more than an echo; its background is individual experience. Strength is not enough for this ministry of sympathy, even the purest, noblest, most majestic strength: it must have passed through the fires of suffering, or of struggle, to get the fineness and delicacy required for this sacred work. Moral uprightness and purity are not enough: unchastened, even these divine qualities are too cold to render the service that sad and weary hearts need in their loneliness and weakness.
March 21
Sufficient Unto The Day
The promise given to one of the tribes was, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." Strength was not promised in advance, – enough for all life, or even for a year, or for a month, – but the promise was that for each day, when it came with its own needs, duties, battles, and griefs, enough strength would be given. As the burden increased, more strength would be imparted. As the night grew darker, the lamps would shine out more brightly. The important thought here is, that strength is not emptied into our hearts in bulk – a supply for years to come – but is kept in reserve, and given day by day, just as the day’s needs require.
March 22
Give Love
We are always to hold ourselves ready to show the kindness of love to every human being that crosses our path. We do not know how many of those whom we meet any day do need us. There may be none of the great crying needs which kindle compassion in all human breasts. We may go for years and come upon no one lying wounded by the wayside. But there are needs just as real as these, and perhaps quite as tragic. There are hearts that are discouraged, needing cheer that they faint not. There are people who are tempted, wavering, and ready to fall. There are those who are carrying a burden of sorrow, crying out for comfort. There are those who are hungry for love.
March 23
The Importance Of Influence
The world is ever full of human lives whose eternal destiny seems to depend upon whether they meet cloud or sunshine, encouragement or discouragement, hope or despair, in the faces that look into theirs. Guides sometimes warn tourists among the Swill Mountains not to speak as they pass certain points. Even the reverberation of a whisper in the air may start a poised avalanche from its place in the crags. There are times in the story of many human lives when they are so delicately poised that it depends on how the first person they meet greets them whether they sink into the darkness of despair or lift up their head to find hope. We never know when passing mood of ours may decide a soul’s destiny. We dare not then, even for a moment, or in one case, be a discourager of another soul.
March 24
Too Late!
There are those who wait till death has come before they begin to speak their words of appreciation and commendation. There are many who say their first truly generous words of others beside their coffins. They bring their flowers then, although they never gave a flower when their friends were living. Many a person goes down in defeat, under life’s burdens, unhelped, uncheered, and then, when the eyes are closed and the hands folded, there comes, too late, love enough to have turned the tide of battle and given victory, had it come a little earlier. Life is hard for many people, and we have no right to withhold any look or touch or act of love which will lighten the load or cheer the heart of any fellow struggler. The best use we can make of our life is to live so that we shall be a benediction to everyone we meet.
March 25
The Curse Of Temper
Someone says: "Losing the temper takes all the sweet, pure feeling out of life. You may get up in the morning with a clean heart, full of song, and start out as happy as a bird; but the moment you are crossed and give way to your temper, the clean feeling vanishes, and a load as heavy as lead is rolled upon your heart; you go through the rest of the day feeling like a culprit. Anyone who has experienced this feeling knows, too, that it cannot be shaken off, but must be prayed off."
March 26
Common Acts Of Common Days
We have no adequate conception of the far-reaching influence of our acts and words. We do not live for ourselves alone any single day. Our smallest deeds touch other lives, and set in motion current of moral impression which shall roll on for ever. We do not know what it may mean to Christ’s cause on the earth, and to other human souls, for us to be true and faithful any little hour. We do not know what eyes are upon us in the common life of the common days – watching us, not critically, not hoping to find some flaw in us, but with most eager desire to learn if indeed there be grace in Christ to help a soul to be faithful.
March 27
The Greatest Thing
Just in the measure that we love others are we ready to help them in any true way. Nothing but love will do men good. Power has its ways of helping. Law may protect. Money will buy bread and build homes. But for the helpfulness which means the most in human lives, nothing but love prepares us. Even the most lavish and the most opportune gifts, if love be not in them, lack that which chiefly gives them their value. It is not the man whose service of others costs the most in money value who is the greatest benefactor, but the man who gives the most of human compassion, the most of himself, with his gifts.
March 28
Blessing In Store
We should remember that the blessings which have gone away are not all that God has for us. This summer’s flowers will fade by and by, when winter’s cold breath smites them – we shall not be able to find one of them in the fields or gardens during the long cold dreary months to come – yet we shall know all the while that God has other flower preparing just as fragrant and as lovely as those which have perished. Spring will come again, and under its warm breath the earth will be covered once more with floral beauty as rich as that which faded in the autumn. So the joys that have gone from our home and our heart are not the only joys; God has others in store just as rich as those we have lost, and in due time He will give us these to fill our emptied hands.
March 29
One With God
The Christian does not merely receive blessings from Christ, does not merely enjoy His friendship, have His help, and live under His protection. This would be a high privilege, even if it were all. To have the Son of God for Friend, Helper, Keeper, and Guide brings into a sinful, frail, imperiled human life unspeakable good. But the believer is a branch of Christ, one with Him. Christ’s life is his life. Christ’s fullness flows into his heart. Christ’s joy and peace and strength are his. Apart from Christ he can do nothing, but in Christ he can do all things.
March 30
The Discipline Of Failure
Love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self control, – these are the qualities in which we must grow if we would be really advancing in life as God sees us. And it is possible for a man to be making progress in these qualities of his heart-life even in the midst of earthly failure. Indeed, it is true that men ofttimes learn their best lessons in the school of defeat. Nature in all of us needs to be disciplined before it reaches its best and ripest, and discipline is not achieved usually without many lessons in humility.
March 31
God Knows
To us the path of each day is always new – we have not passed this way heretofore, and we cannot tell what any hour may bring to us. But He knows all the way, for He went over every inch of it. There is no human experience which Christ does not understand. No suffering can be ours which He did not feel. No wrong can hurt us, but He was hurt far more sorely. Is the burden heavy? His burden was infinitely heavier, for He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses, and bowed beneath the load of our sins. There is no phase of struggle, of suffering, of pain, of temptation, or of joy with which He is unfamiliar. And knowing thus the way, from having sought it out for Himself, He is able to guide us in it.
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