LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

the most experienced pilot ever known may miss his way in a fog; and the most God-fearing, upright, honest Christian may be, nay certainly is, liable to faults, mistakes, and failings. "The only safe ship I know of is the one which is drawn up upon the shore!" There, out of reach of the violence of the waves, far from their stormy tides, the ship rests safely. It makes but little difference whether the ship be flat-bottomed or pointed as to its keel; it makes no difference at all whether the man be rich or poor, whether he be bond or free. It is to the same harbour both are bound, it is to the same Master each will be accountable for deeds done in the body. Only be sure that you are living now the life that Christ would have you live, and that you can say with S. Paul, "the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.[#]"

      [#] Gal. ii. 20.

MY BIRTHDAY.

       Table of Contents

      "My birthday! ev'ry minute tells

      Me time is passing by,

      And bids me look to One Who dwells

      Beyond the starry sky;

      A frowning past would seem to say:

      'What moments have been thrown away.'

      Great God! as birthdays come and go,

      And mark each fleeting stage below,

      Be Thou my hope, be Thou my aid--

      The only strength which cannot fade--

      And when the throbs of life have passed,

      O take me to Thyself at last."

       John Burbidge.

      Reader, just think what a birthday is. Your birthday is the day on which you were born. The day on which God sent you into this world, giving you a free will to fight for Him or against Him. And every year regularly since that day you have had a birthday. You have been getting every year nearer and nearer to the grave, nearer and nearer home. And what is the home to which you have been drawing nearer, God's or Satan's? Has every fresh birthday found you growing in grace as well as in age? Can it be said of you, as it was of our blessed Lord, He "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man?" Remember that such wisdom as that mentioned there is not to be got out of learned books. It is the same kind of wisdom that Solomon had, the gift of Almighty God. Learned men write learned books, and we read their writings with delight. But a queen even took a long, a toilsome journey in person to hear the wisdom of Solomon, for he was the wisest man on earth.

      Just think for a moment how old you were last birthday. How many of those years can you truthfully say have been spent in the service of Christ? Jesus Christ passed thirty years here on our earth, thirty weary, sorrowful years, and He can truthfully say that every day of those thirty years was passed for you and for me! Yes, reader, every day and every hour! He bore the mocking laughter of the Jew, and the idle scoffing of the Gentile, that He might know what ridicule meant, and might help you to bear it too. He worked in the carpenter's shop that He might know what labour was, and understand what weariness means. He saw that foxes had holes, and the birds had their nests, while He had no place in which to lay His head; and all this He suffered, that He might know the full bitterness of the cup of misery drunk by the houseless, homeless poor. And He knew too that each year, each birthday, brought Him nearer to death, and what a death it was! Oh! have you ever thought of the pain of knowing all this beforehand? Perhaps now and then, (but very rarely,) you sit down on your birthday to think of your death-day. But God has mercifully hidden from your eyes the manner and circumstances of your death. It wasn't so with Christ. Whenever the thought of death came into His mind, there would rise up before Him a vision of three crosses of wood on a hill outside a city. Crowds of people would be standing round, and Roman soldiers keeping guard. On two of the crosses would be nailed thieves; on the centre one Himself, the Lord of life and glory. I remember seeing a picture a few years ago in London by a well-known artist. He had painted a boy standing near a carpenter's bench in a village workshop. He had been working hard, and was now resting, and in the act of stretching Himself. Both arms were extended at full length, and the head leant slightly on one side. A woman, kneeling on the floor behind Him, was looking at some treasures in a large chest. The sun falling upon the figure of the boy, cast a shadow upon the floor, a shadow of a figure stretched as if it were ready for crucifixion, and the artist had well named his picture "The Shadow of Death." Reader, you may be young, as young as that boy in the picture; but near you too may be standing the shadow of death. The boy Jesus, in stretching His weary limbs, strangely cast a shadow on the ground of the death of the man Christ. And though you know it not, death may be standing quite as near to you as it was to Him--or nearer.

      Oh then be up and doing, working for the Master Christ, ere the night cometh. Rather let each birthday as it comes find you nearer to your Father in heaven, and more prepared to meet Him. And then those beautiful lines shall be true of you, and of your life:--

      "To Thy saints, while here below,

      With new years new mercies come;

      But the happiest year they know,

      Is their last which leads them Home."

TEMPTATION.

       Table of Contents

      "When wounded sore the stricken heart

      Lies bleeding and unbound,

      One only Hand, a piercèd Hand,

      Can salve the sinner's wound."

       Mrs. Alexander.

      What is temptation? A good man was once asked that question, and he said--"The border-line between sin and holiness. Not sin itself, but the surroundings, the outer crust, as it were, of sin." And that is the best answer I can give you.

      Well did the Master know what temptation was; and in His godly wisdom He has given us a special petition in His own Prayer against it. "Lead us not into temptation," we continually pray, and we often say those words thoughtlessly and carelessly enough, but none of us ever know how many temptations these words keep us from. God gives us trials, and they are good for our faith; but it has been well said, that what is a trial in the hand of God becomes a temptation in the hand of Satan.

      You should always try and remember, when tempted, that Jesus is near you and looking on--that no temptation can befall you, save what He allows. If you call to Him for help, He will hear you, and answer: not always to remove the temptation, but to give you His grace and strength to withstand it.

      There is a story told of a young workman in the Black Country, who was converted to God, and was in consequence subjected to great persecution from those who were employed with him in the forge. One day they stripped him naked, and placed him in front of the furnace fire, while a number of men and lads stood by using filthy language. They threatened to keep him there until he swore, but he remained silent; till at length one, in whom there was more humanity than the rest, freed him from his tormentors. The clergyman happened to hear of it, and sent for him, and asked how he felt when in that fearful case. "Sir," was his simple answer, "I never felt before that Jesus was so near me as then." Don't you think that Christ had given that young man a large portion of His Spirit? Don't you think that he was a martyr--a witness for Christ? It was the same, you know, with those three children thousands of years ago at Babylon. The great King of Babylon had taken them captive; and he commanded them to fall down and worship a golden image which he had set up. There they were in Babylon--far from the temple, where they used to worship God, far from their friends and relatives. They were only three young men among thousands of strangers. And after all, would it have been so very wrong, just for once, to fall down and worship, as the king commanded? Yes, it would have been wrong, very wrong; and Shadrach,

Скачать книгу