Joy And Strength

[nChrist]

Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Luke 1:77-79

The Fullest Peace

To give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

LUKE 1:77-79

BELIEVE that love reigns, and that love will prevail. I believe that He says to me every morning, "Begin again thy journey and thy life; thy sins, which are many, are not only forgiven, but they shall be made, by the wisdom of God, the basis on which He will build blessings."
THOMAS ERSKINE

There is no thirst of the soul so consuming as the desire for pardon. The sense of its bestowal is the starting-point of all goodness. It comes bringing with it, if not the freshness of innocence, yet a glow of inspiration that nerves feeble hands for hard tasks, a fire of hope that lights anew the old high ideal, so that it stands before the eye in clear relief, beckoning its to make it out, own. To be able to look into God's face, and know with the knowledge of faith that there is nothing between the soul and Him, is to experience the fullest peace the soul can know. Whatever else pardon may be, it is above all things admission into full fellowship with God.
CHARLES H. BRENT

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 107:5-6 Matthew 5:6

Hungering

Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses.

PSALMS 107:5,6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

MATTHEW 5:6

THOU hear'st the hungry ravens when they cry,
And to Thy children shalt thou not send bread,
Who on Thy aid alone for help rely,
And in the steps of Christ alone would tread?
They shall not cry for righteousness in vain,
But bread from heaven Thy hand shall soon supply.

JONES VERY

IF God had not said, Blessed are those that hunger, I know not what could keep weak Christians from sinking in despair; many times all I can do is to find and complain that I want Him, and wish to recover Him; now this is my stay, that He in mercy esteems us not only by having, but by desiring also; and, after a sort, accounts us to have that which we want and desire to have. JOSEPH HALL

Honest sighing is faith breathing and whispering in the ear; the life is not out of faith, where there is sighing, looking up with the eyes, and breathing toward God.
SAMUEL RUTHERFORD

He never yet rejected the feeble soul which clung to Him in love.
H. L. SIDNEY LEAR

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Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Isaiah 53:4 2 Corinthians 4:6

How to Think of God

God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 CORINTHIANS 4:6

Surely, He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.
ISAIAH 53:4

THE way to think of God so as to know Him, is to think of Christ. Then we see Him, and can understand how tender and merciful and good He is. We see that if He sends us sorrows and difficulties, He only sends them because they are the true blessings, the things that are truly good. He would have us like Himself, with a happiness like His own, and nothing below it; and so as His own happiness is in taking sorrow and infirmity, and ever assisting, and giving and sacrificing Himself, He gives us sorrows too, and weaknesses, which are not the evils that we think them, but are what we should be most happy in, if we were perfect and had knowledge like Him. So there is a use and a service in all we bear, in all we do, which we do not know, but which He knows, and which in Christ He shows to us. It is a use for others, a hidden use, but one which makes all our life rich, and that richest which is most like Christ's.
JAMES HINTON

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Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Joshua 10:25 Psalm 118:28

The Lord Will Strengthen

Thy God hath commanded thy strength; strengthen, 0 God, that which Thou hast wrought for us.
PSALMS 68:28

Fear not, nor be dismayed; be strong, and of good courage.
JOSHUA 10:25

THEN combat well, of naught afraid,
For thus His follower thou art made,
Each battle teaches thee to fight,
Each foe to be a braver knight,
Armed with His might.
J. H. BOHMER, 1704

HENCEFORTH my soul should fight with the prestige of victory, with the courage that comes of having striven and won, trusted and not been confounded.
JULIANA H. EWING

They have had their victories; and when the stress is hardest, it is wise to look back on these for encouragement, as songs of joy and triumph bring strength and support along a way beset with pain and sorrow and disappointments; which, when seen in their true proportions, are only as faint specks showing in a universe of infinite light.
LAURENCE OLIPHANT

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Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference John 11:40 Matthew 9:29

Stay Close to God

According to your faith be it unto you.
MATTHEW 9:29

Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
JOHN 11:40

FIND that while faith is steady nothing can disquiet me, and when faith totters nothing can establish me. If I ramble out among means and creatures, I am presently lost, and can come to no end. But if I stay myself on God, and leave Him to work in His own way and time, I am at rest, and can lie down and sleep in a promise, though a thousand rise up against me. Therefore my way is not to cast beforehand, but to walk with God by the day. Keep close to God, and then you need fear nothing. Maintain secret and intimate acquaintance with Him, and then a little of the creature will go a great way. Crowd not religion into a corner of the day. Would men spend those hours they wear out in plots and devices in communion with God, and leave all on Him by venturesome believing, they would have more peace and comfort.
JOSEPH ELIOT, 1664

FAITH is the better of the free air, and of the sharp winter storm in its face.
SAMUEL RUTHERFORD

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Deuteronomy 1:21

Peace in Suffering

Fear not, neither be discouraged.
DEUTERONOMY 1:21

HAPPY are they that learn, in Thee,
Though patient suffering teach,
The secret of enduring strength,
And praise too deep for speech,--
Peace that no pressure from without,
No strife within, can reach
ANNA L. WARING

ONE of the greatest trials and miseries of this life seems to me to be the absence of a grand spirit to keep the body under control; illnesses and grievous afflictions, though they are a trial, I think nothing of, if the soul is strong, for it praises God, and sees that everything comes from His hand.
ST. TERESA

MANY say they have no peace nor rest, but so many crosses and trials, afflictions and sorrows, that they know not how they shall ever get through them. Now he who in truth will perceive and take note, perceiveth clearly that true peace and rest lie not in outward things. There liveth no man on earth who may always have rest and peace without troubles and crosses. Wherefore yield thyself willingly to them, and seek only that true peace of the heart, which none can take away from thee, that thou mayest overcome all assaults.
THEOLOGIA GERMANICA

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Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Romans 8:37

Toward Christ and Away From Sin

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
ROMANS 8:37

LORD, in this awful fight with Sin
I would not just prevail;
Against each lust so strong within
I would not almost fail.
Full, gladsome, glorious victory
Should crown the Holy War;
Lord! I would triumph well--would be--
A more than conqueror.
THOMAS H. GILL

DO not try only to abstain from sin, but strive, by God's grace, to gain the opposite grace. If thou wouldest not slip back into sin, thou must stretch forward to Christ and His holiness. It is a dull, heavy, dreary, toilsome way, just to avoid sin. Thou wouldest not simply not be impatient; thou wouldest long to be like thy Lord, who was meek and lowly of heart. Thou wouldest not only not openly murmur; thou wouldest surely long, like the beloved Apostle, to rest on Jesus' breast, and will what He wills.
EDWARD B. PUSEY

THE only real relief is in absolute conquest; and the earlier the battle begins, the easier and the shorter it will be. If one can keep irritability under, one may escape a struggle to the death with passion.
JULIANA H. EWING

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Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 27:1

Our Strong Salvation

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

PSALMS 27:1

GOD is my strong salvation,
What foe have I to fear?
In darkness and temptation,
My light, my help, is near.
Though hosts encamp around me,
Firm to the fight I stand,
What terror can confound me
With God at my right hand?

JAMES MONTGOMERY

ALL the spiritual enemies, all the enemies of a man's own house, are to be destroyed by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, working by His grace in the heart. And when salvation is brought home to the heart, and wrought out there by the Lord, it is to be enjoyed and abode in, and the soul is not to return back again into captivity; but, being delivered out of the hands of its inward and spiritual enemies, is to serve God in the dominion of His Son's life, in holiness and righteousness all its days here upon the earth.
ISAAC PENINGTON

WHO does not know what it is to rise up from a fault--perceived, confessed, and forgiven--with an almost joyous sense of new energy, strength, and will to persevere?
H. L. SIDNEY LEAR

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Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 32:7

Turn Your Eyes

Thou art my hiding-place; Thou shalt preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.

PSALMS 32:7

FEAREST sometimes that thy Father
Hath forgot?
When the clouds around thee gather,
Doubt Him not.
Always hath the daylight broken,--
Always hath He comfort spoken,--
Better hath He been for years
Than thy fears.

KARL RUDOLPH HAGENBACH

IT is the indwelling Presence of God, believed in trusted, reverenced, recollected, which ought to become the support to meet every case of trouble. The soul finds rest from its perplexities, as it turns from what perplexes and disturbs it, to fix its gaze and hope and purpose on Him. If there be a pressure of distress, or anxiety, or care, or perplexity of any kind, a heavy burden weighing down the spirits, then let the soul look off for a moment from itself, and from the trying object, to God. The recollection of His presence within, ever abiding, continually renewed by perpetual communion, would secure to the soul, if duly and constantly cherished, an habitual life of rest.
T. T. CARTER

What harm can happen to him who knows that God does everything, and who loves beforehand everything that God does?
MADAME SWETCHINE

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Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 2 Timothy 2:1

The Grace of Strength

Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 TIMOTHY 2:1

I WOULD arise in all Thy strength
My place on earth to fill,
To work out all my time of war
With love's unflinching will.
Firm against every doubt of Thee
For all my future way--
To walk in Heaven's eternal light
Throughout the changing day.
ANNA L. WARING

EVERY trouble is an opportunity to win the grace of strength. Whatever else trouble is in the world for, it is here for this good purpose: to develop strength. For a trouble is a moral and spiritual task. It is something which is hard to do. And it is in the spiritual world as in the physical, strength is increased by encounter with the difficult. A world without any trouble in it would be, to people of our kind, a place of spiritual enervation and moral laziness. Fortunately, every day is crowded with care. Every day to every one of us brings its questions, its worries, and its tasks, brings its sufficiency of trouble. Thus we get our daily spiritual exercise. Every day we are blessed with new opportunities for the development of strength of soul.
GEORGE HODGES

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Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference John 17:19

Consecrated by Christ

For their sakes I consecrate Myself,
JOHN 17:19 (R. V. MARGIN)

THE thought may help us in regard to all the temptations of our life, even the most hidden and solitary. It may help us to do battle with our despondency and sadness, with our restlessness and resentment, with the perverting and corrupting misery of ambition. We must be watchful and uncompromising, if the self-consecration is to do its work. One sin alone indulged, condoned, domesticated, may spoil it all; may cripple all our hope of helpfulness; may baffle the willingness of God to use us in His work for others. "For their sakes I consecrate myself." This, then, is our constant hope, that God will so cleanse and purify our hearts that they may not hinder the transmission to others of that light and truth which issue from His Presence. For that hope we would cast out all that defiles and darkens us; we would freely give ourselves to Christ, that He may enter in and rule and animate us; so that, through all our unworthiness, something of His brightness and peace may be made known to men.
FRANCIS PAGET

DID I but live nearer to God, I could be of so much more help.
GEORGE HODGES

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Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference John 3:16

God So Loved

God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
JOHN 3:16

LET your love be wide as His,
With the whole world around His knees;
Gather into your warm heart
All His creatures,--not a part;
So your love shall be like His.
KATHARINE TYNAN HINKSON

GOD hath made all that is made, and God loveth all that He hath made; and he that loveth all his fellow Christians, for God's sake, he loveth all that is.
MOTHER JULIANA

YOUR God is love; love Him and in Him all men, as His children in Christ. Your Lord is a fire; do not let your heart be cold, but bum with faith and love. Your Lord is light; do not walk in darkness. Your Lord is a God of mercy and bountifulness; be also a source of mercy and bountifulness to your neighbors.
FATHER JOHN

"Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself;" and then go on thy way. The way in which God shall lead thee may be over rocks and deserts, over mountains and oceans, amid things perilous to the sight and the touch; but still go on thy way rejoicing.
THOMAS C. UPHAM

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Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 70:4

Good is His Will

Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee.
PSALMS 70:4

LORD! along this earthly way
Thou Thy pilgrim greetest;
To Thy thankful child each day
Thou Thy love repeatest;
Thou dost bid me weep no more,
Thou dost teach this song to soar,
Thou dost all the sweetness pour
When my life is sweetest.
THOMAS H. GILL

I AM thankful that I have learned, not only to see that I ought to say, but to feel what it is truly to say, "good is the will of the Lord" in little things as well as in great things. Many who seek to be enabled, and are in measure enabled, to say this in great things, have yet to learn what it is to say it in little things; and, in consequence, they are often heard complaining of what in little matters God appoints for them, in a way that contradicts the faith that "all things work together for good to them that love God," and that, therefore, there is a good in all things, to be extracted from each thing as it comes, by receiving it in the light of love. Love to God, that love which receives God Himself as the portion of the soul in every cup, its sweetest ingredient, whatever other sweet ingredients may be in it, is as essential to the right understanding of what God does in providence as the faith that He is love in what He does.
JOHN MCLEOD CAMPBELL

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Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 1 Corinthians 16:14

Hide Your Pain

Let all that ye do be done in love.
1 CORINTHIANS 16:14 (R. V.)

IF thou art blessed,
Then let the sunshine of thy gladness rest
On the dark edges of each cloud that lies
Black in thy brother's skies. If thou art sad,
Still be thou in thy brother's gladness glad.
ANNA E. HAMILTON

WHAT can be more unkind than to communicate our low spirits to others, to go about the world like demons, poisoning the fountains of joy? Have I more light because I have managed to involve those I love in the same gloom as myself? Is it not pleasant to see the sun shining on the mountains, even though we have one of it down in our valley? Oh, the littleness and the meanness of that sickly appetite for sympathy, which will not let us keep our sorrows to ourselves! Let us hide our pains and sorrows. But, while we hide them, let them also be spurs within us to urge us on to all manner of overflowing kindness and sunny humor to those around us. When the very darkness within us creates a sunshine around us, then has the spirit of Jesus taken possession of our souls.
FREDERICK WM. FABER

She now rarely lost the sacred opportunity of giving pleasure.
SARAH W.STEPHEN

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Author: Mary Tileston Wilder
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Jeremiah 31:3

He Longs for Our Love

Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

JEREMIAH 31:3

MY song is love unknown;
My Saviour's love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.

SAMUEL CROSSMAN

HE so governs and shapes all the circumstances of life, that if we use them aright we may draw near to Him here, and prepare to be near Him in the Forever after. He longs for our love,--our love, which is so feeble and faint, and yet so precious in His sight when we give it to Him freely. And why does He so desire it? Ah! I have told you many times before, and yet we cannot too often remember it, that it is because, if we love Him, He can make us supremely happy. All that belongs to us, or occurs to us, in this life, is so ordered that we may find in it the means of putting far from us those obstructions of evil which prevent us from seeing Him as He is, and as He has revealed Himself to us; for if we did but so see Him, how could we fail to love Him with the whole heart and soul?
THEOPHILUS PARSONS

How shall we become lovely? By loving Him who is ever lovely.
ST. AUGUSTINE

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