We who look for Jesus ought to be joyful; it is no credit to our Lord when we look as though we were seeking His grave. The dull looks of Christ's followers have injured Him in the sight of the world. Let us, then, smile as we go, for we have the star if we will look up and put ourselves in the right path.--_Thos. Champness._
_When I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me. Micah vii. 8._
If you are willing to choose the seeming darkness of faith instead of the illumination of reason, wonderful light will break out upon you from the Word of God.--_A. J. Gordon._
_I (Daniel) was left alone, and saw this great vision. Dan. x. 8._
Solitude is the antechamber of God; only one step more and you can be in His immediate presence.--_Landor._
This morning the voice of the Beloved of our soul is heard giving us His invitation.
We answer, "No; of ourselves we have nothing but hunger and starvation. O God, we cannot feed ourselves!"
Then it is that His own sweet voice replies, "Come and dine!"--_W. Hay Aitken._
_O Lord God, Thou knowest! Ezek. xxxvii. 3._
Here is the response of faith. "Thou knowest!"--what a pillow for the heart to repose upon! "Thou knowest!"--what few but comprehensive words to sum up and express the heart's difficulties and perplexities and trials. "Thou knowest!"--what an inexpressibly sweet resting-place in the midst of life's tumultuous heavings; in the midst of a sea that knows no calm; in the midst of a scene in which tossings to and fro are the hourly history! What an answer they contain for every heart that can find no words to express its big emotions; for a heart whose sorrows are too deep for language to find its way to God! Oh, that they were ever uppermost in the soul, as the response to every difficulty in our path! They are God's answer to everything we cannot fathom; God's answer for our hearts to rest upon, and our lips to utter, when every way is hedged up so that we cannot pass. "O Lord God, thou knowest!" Rest here, believer. Lean thy soul on these words. Repose calmly on the bosom of thy God, and carry them with thee into every scene of life. "O Lord God, thou knowest."--_F. Whitfield._
_Behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. Gen. xxviii. 12._