Counsel And Help
by J R Miller
For life, with all it yields of joy and woe,
And hope and fear&hellip
Is just our chance of the prize of learning love -
How love might be, hath been indeed, and is.
October 1
Making The Desert Bloom
It is a beautiful thing to plant a flower which may grow and be the beginning of a lovely garden which shall brighten
one little spot in the desert. That is worth while. It is worth while to put a bit of beauty into a dreary spot
to brighten it. It is worth while to plant a few flowers where no flowers had bloomed before. It is a beautiful
thing to change a spot of desert into a garden. It is still more worth while to get love into a heart in which
only selfishness and hate dwelt before. It is best of all to get Christ admitted where He has not been received
before. That is the truest and best ministry.
October 2
New Light On Sorrow
Earthly life is full of pain and sorrow. God had one Son without sin; He has none without suffering, for Christ
was prince of sufferers. The world regards adversity and sorrow of every kind as misfortune. It would never call
a man blessed or happy whose life is full of trial and tears. But the gospel turns a new light, the light from
heaven, upon earthly life, and in this wonderful light affliction and sorrow beautiful.
October 3
Working And Waiting
We have need of patience. We should learn to wait as well as labour, to listen as well as speak, to rest as well
as toil. There are moments and hours in life when the supreme duty is to do nothing, to stand quiet and patient,
waiting trustfully for God to work, or for the time to come when we can act. Immeasurable harm has been done ofttimes
by impatience which could not stand and wait.
October 4
Neglected Opportunities
In our Lord’s description of the judgment, those on the left hand are condemned not for evil things which they
have done, but for their neglect of love’s duties. "I was a hungered, and ye gave Me no meat. I was thirsty,
and ye gave Me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in: naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick, and in prison,
and ye visited Me not." They had not oppressed the poor, they had not robbed men, and they had not gone about
wounding others. Nothing whatever is said of their sins, saying that they had not done the deeds of love to those
who needed such ministries. They had left undone things which they ought to have done.
October 5
The Impulse Of Service
Paul, like his Master, "went about doing good." He never stopped to rest. When his work was done in one
place he was instantly off to another. When one door was closed he sought another that was open. No opposition
checked him. No persecution daunted him. He is thus a model for all Christ’s followers.
But we must get his motive before we can have his career. There is no use in our trying to imitate his zeal unless
we can first get his spirit. Here are two locomotive engines. They are precisely alike, but one of them rolls over
the rails at fifty miles an hour, drawing its immense train, while the other stands quiet and motionless in the
round house. The difference is that the one has a heart of fire, which gives it power, while the heart of the other
is cold. It was a heart of fire that made Paul the great missionary he was. There are plenty of people of the other
kind in churches, wanting only the fire to make them mighty workers for Christ.
October 6
He Holds The Key
He can open the doors of death’s prison houses when He will, and bring up the bodies of His people that are yet
under death’s power. This ought to be a comfort to us. It seems hard to put the bodies of our dead away in the
grave, and have them shut up there. But they will not always stay in the gloom. Christ Himself lay in the grave,
and then arose and burst open the door and came forth. In like manner, at the right time, He will call up all those
who sleep in Him.
Another thought suggested by Christ with the keys of death in His hand is, that He is the Guide of His people in
their lonely walk through the valley of death. He knows the way by experience, and is thus prepared to conduct
them through it. This ought to be a great comfort to us as we think of dying. We are sure of the presence with
us of this experienced and faithful Guide, and no harm can touch us.
October 7
The Strength Of Meekness
Christian meekness is not put down among the world’s beatitudes. It requires a great deal more strength and heroism
to be forgiving, to stand patient under insult, than it does to get angry and strike. Hence the manliest man is
no he who flies into a temper, who resents every injury, demanding satisfaction, but the man who receives the wrong
and stands silent under the insult, leaving in God’s hands the righting of his wrongs. A Spanish writer says: "To
return evil for good is devilish; to return good for good is human; but to return good for evil is Godlike."
October 8
God's Daily Readings
Reckoning with God will be a very serious matter. We are told that the books will be opened – the books which record
men’s acts, motives, dispositions, tempers. But we do not have to wait until the Judgment Day to have these reckonings;
God reckons with us as we go along. He is continually calling men to give account to Him. Sometimes it is by the
preaching of the Word, which convicts them of sin and makes them stand trembling before the bar of conscience.
Sometimes it is by an affliction or a trial which compels them to stop and think of their relation to god. Sometimes
it is by a deep searching of heart produced by the silent inner working of the Holy Spirit. There is no man who,
some time or other in this present life is not called up before God for a reckoning.
October 9
Christ Love Individuals
Does God know me among the millions of His angels? Does He ever fix His thought on me as an individual? Does He
have a distinct and personal affection for me like that of a mother for her child? Does Christ, the Good Shepherd,
give care and thought to each particular sheep, so that He knows each one’s present conditions and circumstances?
Does He know when one of His is in trouble, is sick or suffering, when one has been hurt in some way, or when one
is in danger? Does He know when one strays from the safe enclosure of the fold and wanders off into peril?
The answer to all these questions is the same. Every individual has his own place in the heart of Christ.
St. Paul put this truth most strikingly in a sentence when he said of Christ: "He loved me, and gave Himself
for me."
October 10
Undeserved Love
We all know that love is a transfiguring quality. But what is the love that is a fruit of the Spirit? Love for
lovely or loveable people? Yes; but love for all sorts and conditions of people as well. Some of the most selfish
and disagreeable people you ever saw had an intense love for a few particular individuals. Anybody can love those
who are kind, sweet, spirited, and unselfish. "If ye love them that love you, what thank have ye? For even
sinners love those that love the." The love which the Holy Spirit kindles is love for unlovely people as well
as lovely, love for those who are not gentle and kindly, and love for enemies. It is a love that is stirred by
human need, wherever it appears, and that rests not in mere sentiment, but reaches out its hand to help and bless.
October 11
Happiness In Self Denial
We must live a useful life. Nothing good ever comes out of idleness or out of selfishness. The standing water stagnates
and breeds decay and death. It is the running stream that keeps pure and sweet. The fruit of an idle life is never
joy and peace. Years lived selfishly never become garden spots in the field of memory. Happiness comes out of self
denial for the good of other. Sweet always are the memories of good deeds done and sacrifices made. Their incense,
like heavenly perfume, comes floating up form the fields of toil and fills old age with holy fragrance. When one
has lived to bless others, one has many grateful, loving friends whose affection proved a wondrous source of joy
when the days of feebleness comes. Bread cast upon the waters is found again after many days.
October 12
A Privilege Of Friendship
The joy of being trusted is one of the holiest experiences that can come to any human heart. We do not understand
the sweetest privilege of friendship until in some hour of need or weakness or sorrow our friend trust us absolutely,
leans upon us, as it were puts his very life into our hand. The opposite of this is the pain of not being trusted.
It may not be through any lack of love, or lack of confidence in our character or strength, but only through fear;
yet the failure of a friend to trust us, whatever the cause, hurts our heart.
October 13
What Christianity Requires
A Christian man must be strong as well as tender. His word must be pure as gold. His lightest promises must be
as sacredly kept as his most solemn engagements. He must be a large hearted, generous man, unselfish, noble spirited,
above all suspicion of meanness. He must be scrupulously exact in all his dealings, promptly returning what he
has borrowed, paying his debts the very day they are due, never seeking to evade them, never forgetting them, nor
postponing payment till the very latest time. He must not be a hard man, close, oppressive, domineering, and despotic.
In a word, he must combine unflinching integrity, unvarying promptness and punctuality, and conscientious truthfulness
with generosity and liberality.
October 14
Doing The Next Thing
We are not to wait for opportunities to do great things – not to keep watching for some splendid thing which by
its conspicuous importance may win for us the applause of men – but are to do always, moment by moment, the thing
that comes to our hand. It may be to speak a cheering word to one who is disheartened, to join in a child’s play,
to mend a broken toy, to send a few flowers made more fragrant by your love into a sick room, or to write a letter
of condolence or sympathy. It is the thing, small or great, which our hand finds at the moment to do.
October 15
Importance Of Little Deeds
Says Faber: "When men do anything for God – the very least thing – they never know where it will end, nor
what amount of good it will do for Him. Love’s secret, therefore, is to be always doing things for God, and not
to mind because they are very little things." Carlyle says: "Oh, it is great, and there is no other greatness,
to make some work of God’s creation more fruitful, better, more worthy of good; to make some human heart a little
wise, manful, happier, more blessed, less accursed." And we never know how a little thing of our may bless
a life and stay in it as a benediction for ever.
October 16
Happy Ignorance
We cannot bear now the revealing of our own future. Christ knows it all. When a young Christian comes to His feet
and says, "I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou leadest," the Master knows what that promise means.
But He does not reveal the knowledge to this happy disciple. People sometimes say they wish they could look on
into the years and see all that will come to them. But would this be a blessing? Would it make them happier? Could
they shape their course better if they knew all that shall befall them – the struggles, the victories, the defeats,
the joys and sorrows, the failures of bright hopes, just how long they will live?
October 17
Beauty Of Soul
There is a spiritual light which makes the plainest face radiant and the homeliest features lovely. There is a
beauty of soul which shines like a star in this world of sin. It is for this beauty that we are taught to pray.
"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." It is not the beauty which fades when sickness smites
the body, or which is lost in the withering touch of years, or which blanches when death’s pallor overspreads the
features, but the beauty which grows lovelier in pain or suffering, which shines out in sorrow like a star in the
night, which transfigures the wrinkled and faded features of old age, and which bursts out in death into the full
likeness of Christ.
October 18
Christ Is Watching Us
Christ looks down upon our struggle in this world. He sees us toiling; all our battles and strifes He beholds.
He sees us in the waves and in the storm. He sees us, not with the eye of calm spectator merely, but with the eyes
of tenderest love. This is a great thought; if we can only get it into our hearts, it will give us wondrous courage
in the hour of toil, sorrow, or struggle. Jesus knows when the battle is hard, when the night is dark, when the
temptation is more than we can bear.
October 19
Driven Home
Many of those who went to Christ in the olden days were driven by their distress of heart. They tried everything
else first, and then at the last moment they hurried to Jesus. The same is true in these days. Many persons who
have never prayed before have gotten down upon their knees by the bedside of their sick and dying children and
cried to God on their behalf. Many persons have first been sent to God by their own troubles. It was not until
the prodigal was in sore want, and every other resource had been exhausted, that he said he would arise and go
to his father. Many sinners never think of Christ until they are in despair under the sense of guilt. Not until
they see the storm of wrath gathering do they seek the shelter of the Cross. But what a comfort it is that even
going so late to the Saviour He does not reject or cast away those who come.
October 20
Unquestioning Obedience
We have only one thing to do – to obey Christ. In whatever way His will is made known to us, whether in His Word,
through our own consciences, or in His providences, we have but to accept it and do it. It may mean the setting
aside of cherished plans, the giving up of things that are dearest to us, a life of pain and suffering, but in
any case it is ours to obey without question.
October 21
Experience Teachers
Oftentimes we learn to know our human friends by trusting them. We see no special beauty or worth in them as they
move by our side in the ordinary experiences of life; but we pass at length into circumstance of trial, where we
need friendship, and then the noble qualities of our friends appear, as we trust them, and they come nearer to
us, and prove themselves true. In like manner most of us really get acquainted with Christ only in experience of
need, in which His love and faithfulness are revealed.
October 22
Choose Thou My Lot
People sometimes chafe because in their circumstances they cannot do any great things; as if nothing could be really
a divine mission unless it is something conspicuous. Organizing missionary meetings, speaking at conventions, attending
Dorcas societies, writing books, painting pictures – these are all fine things when they are the things God gives;
but if the mother neglects her children to do any of these, she has simply put out of her hands the largest things
to take up those that are exceedingly small. In other words, that which the Master gives anyone to do is always
the grandest work he can find.
October 23
Value Of Repented Sins
I have seen it stated that the oyster mend its shell with a pearl. Where the ugly wound was, there comes, with
the healing, not a scar, but a pearl. The same is true in human souls when divine grace heals the wounds of sins.
Sins that we truly repent of become pearls in the character. It is the experience of all who grow into Christ like
nobleness, that many of the golden lines of their later lives have been wrought out through their regrets and their
repenting of wrong doings. Someone says, "The besetting sin may become the guardian angel."
October 24
Fair Weather Friends
"Whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him two." The principle applies to everything in
life. A good many people want to go only one mile in consecration, in praying, in loving others, in doing God’s
will. But mere one mile following of Christ is pitifully inadequate. What kind of a friend do you like – one who
will go just the easy one mile with you, while the path is flowery and the air full of sweet odours, and then drop
off when the road gets steep and rough, and the winter winds begin to blow? Or do you like the friend who stays
by you when it costs to be your friend, when he has to carry burdens for you, has almost to carry you sometimes?
Do you like best the friend who goes only one short, easy mile with you and then drops off, or the friend who goes
the second mile?
October 25
Under Christ's Eye
No burden would seem heavy if we bore it in Christ’s Name and for Him. No cross would be too hard to carry if this
Name were written on it. No work would seem hard if we were doing it consciously for our Master. If we remembered
Him and saw His eyes of love looking down upon us continually, we could not let the hateful mood stay in our hearts,
we could not do the mean or wicked thing, we could not say the bitter, cutting word, we could not, by our wretched
jealousy, hurt the gentle heart that never had given us anything but love.
October 26
God's Messengers
Far more than we understand does God strengthen and bless us through human love. He hides Himself in the lives
of those who touch us with their affection. He looks into our eyes through human eyes, and speaks into our ears
through human lips. He gives power to us in our faintness, and hope in our discouragement, through the friends
who come to us with their love and cheer. The highest and greatest of all the comings of God to men was in a human
life, when the Son of God tabernacled in the flesh. So, ever since, God is coming to us in human lives; yet often
we do not recognize the love and the help as from Him, because we see no glory blazing in the faces of the messengers.
October 27
Heaven's Re-Unions
A large part of the blessed hope of heaven is its re-unions. The Bible gives us many glimpses of the glory and
beauty of the home that awaits us. We are told of streets of gold, of gates of pearl, of a river of the water of
life, of a crystal sea – all that earth can find of splendour is brought into the picture to heighten our conception
of the glories of heaven. But that which makes heaven dear to those who have loved ones there is not so much the
promise of all this splendour of beauty, as the hope of again getting with the dear friends who are in the midst
of all this incomparable beauty.
October 28
Our Hidden Heaven
We live in our narrow sphere in this world, treading round and round in the same little circle. Life’s toils and
tasks so fill our hands that we scarcely have time for a thought of anything else. Its secularities and its struggles
for bread keep us ever bent down to the earth. The tears of sorrow dim our vision of God and of heaven. The dust
and smoke of earth’s battles hide the blue of heaven. We need continually to get far looks to rest us, and to keep
us in mind of the great world that stretches away beyond our close horizons. The glimpses of eternity which flash
upon us as we read our Bible or look into Christ’s face tell us anew what we so easily forget, that we are immortal,
that our life really has no horizon.
October 29
Two Ways Of Helping
If you have a friend carrying a heavy load, there are two ways in which you may help him – you may take part of
his burden and carry it for him, or you may put into his heart cheer and courage, making him stronger, so that
he can bear his burden gladly himself. The latter way of helping is quite as effective as the former, and ofttimes
it is a great deal wiser.
October 30
Practicing God's Will
Knowing that we should love our enemies is not the ultimate thing – actually loving our enemies is. Knowing that
we should be patient is not all – we are to practice the lesson of patience until it has become a habit in our
life. Knowing that we should always submit our will to God’s is to have a clear mental conception of our duty in
this regard; but this is not religion. There are many who know well this cardinal duty of Christian life who yet
continue to chafe whenever they cannot have their own way, and who struggle and resist and refuse to submit to
the divine will whenever it appears to be opposed to their own will. They know their lesson, but they have not
learned to live it. It is living it, however, that is religion.
October 31
What Is Worth While
Over the doorway of the Cathedral of Milan is the inscription: "Only the eternal is important." There
are a great many things it is not worth our while to do. Some of us spend our days in poor trivialities which bless
no one, and which will add no lustre to our crown. "Only the eternal is important." Therefore, "Walk
while ye have the light, that the darkness overtakes you not." Waste no opportunity. Despise no privilege.
Squander no moment. There is just time enough in God’s plan for you to live your life well if you spend every moment
of it in earnest, faithful duty. One hour lost will leave a flaw. A life thus lived in unbroken diligence and faithfulness
will have no regrets when the end comes. Its work will be completed. It will not be night that then over takes
it in the ministry which men call death, but day rather, the morning of eternity.
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