Alone with Jesus! How different a front would Christianity present to the world if the Lord's people were oftener there! What humility, and gentleness, and love, would characterize all their dealings! What holiness stamped on the very brow, that all might read! What few judgments passed on others, how many more on ourselves! What calmness and resignation and joyful submission to all the Lord's dealings!
Be much "alone with Jesus!" Then will the passage to glory be one of sunshine, whether it be through the portals of the grave or through the clouds of heaven.--_F. Whitfield._
_Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psa. xvi. 11._
The man who walks along the path of life lives in the presence of the joy-giving God. Just in so far as he is true to that path of life, and wanders neither to the right hand nor to the left, his joy becomes deeper, nay! he becomes partaker of that very fullness of joy in which God Himself lives, and moves, and has His being. And while such is his experience in the midst of all the trials of life, he has also the privilege of looking forward to grander things yet in store for him, when that higher world shall be reached, and the shadows of time have passed away forever. "At Thy right hand," exclaims the psalmist, "there are pleasures for evermore."--_W. Hay Aitken._
Is it not one of the difficulties of church work that we have more officers than men? We need more of the rank and file, who are willing to march anywhere, and to do the lowliest of tasks. We shall succeed in doing greater things when we are all of us willing to be subject. It is the bayonet rather than the gold lace which is wanted when the enemy is to be subdued.--_Thomas Champness._
_Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. Gen. xxxiii. 1._
Do not lift up your eyes and look for Esaus. Those who look for troubles will not be long without finding trouble to look at. Lift them higher--to Him from whom our help cometh. Then you will be able to meet your troubles with an unperturbed spirit. Those who have seen the face of God need not fear the face of man that shall die. To have power with God is to have power over all the evils that threaten us.--_F. B. Meyer._