Joy And Strength

[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 1 John 3:14

Love of Life

We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
1 JOHN 3:14

FOR who has aught to love and loves aright,
Will never in the darkest strait despair,
For out of love exhales a living light,
The light of love, that spends itself in prayer.
HARTLEY COLERIDGE

LOVE is life, and lovelessness is death. As the grace of God changes a man's heart and cleanses and sanctifies him, this is the great evidence of the change, this is the great difference which it makes; that he begins to grow in love, to lay aside self-seeking, and to live for others--and so he may know that he has passed from death unto life. He may know it even here and now--yes, that great discovery of love, that learning to live for others and finding the grace and gentleness that God is keeping up all over the world--even now it is the way from death to life. Even now it changes homes, it lightens every burden, it brings peace and gladness into the hardest days; it alters even the tone of a man's voice and the very look of his face. But all this, blessed and surpassing as it is, far above all else in the world, still is but the beginning. For that life into which we pass, as God's dear grace of love comes in us and about us, is the very life of heaven.
FRANCIS PAGET

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 92:4

Increasing Glory

For Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy work: I will triumph in the works of Thy hands. PSALMS 92:4

CONSIDER it
(This outer world we tread on) as a harp,--
A gracious instrument on whose fair strings
We learn those airs we shall be set to play
When mortal hours are ended.
JEAN INGELOW

EVERY year has been to me a softening of the impressible nature, and a clearing of the eye in all the fields of divine goodness, quite irrespective of the hard, hot, choking work of the external world and its attacks. I feel more and more how all right spirit life is a gladness and a glory increasing; how divine goodness is speaking in all tones that reach the heart with joy or sorrow, awe or ecstasy, everywhere and in all things, if we can but hear it; how completely the spirit within can be in communion with light, independent of external circumstances; and yet how external circumstances and creation are the medium through which God speaks. And if it is indeed a speech of God, an ever present incarnation of the divine mind, then the power of reading the divine mind can only exist for those who are in accordance with it.

EDWARD THRING

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 1 John 4:9

Pressing Soul

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
1 JOHN 4:9

THY love to me, O God,
Not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest,
And set my spirit free.
HORATIUS BONAR

THE spirit of prayer is a pressing forth of the soul out of this earthly life, it is a stretching with all its desire after the life of God, it is a leaving, as far as it can, all its own spirit, to receive a spirit from above, to be one life, one love, one spirit with Christ in God. For the love which God bears to the soul, His eternal, never-ceasing desire to enter into it, and to dwell in it, stays no longer than till the door of the heart opens for Him. For nothing does, or can keep God out of the soul, or hinder His holy union with it, but the desire of the heart turned from Him.
WILLIAM LAW

Holiness is the beauty of the Lord God or hosts. Thou canst not separate the one from the other. To have it, thou must have Him. Nor will it be hard to obtain either; for He longs to enter into thy being. Thy longing is the faint response of thy heart to His call.
F. B. MEYER

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference

Effort in Prayer

Continue in prayer, and watch in the same.
COLOSSIANS 4:2

BUT if distractions manifold prevail,
And if in this we must confess we fail,
Grant us to keep at least a prompt desire,
Continual readiness for prayer and praise,
An altar heaped and waiting to take fire
With the least spark, and leap into a blaze.
RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH

WHEN the set time comes round for prayer, it may be, and often is, the case that the mind is de-pressed, and finds it a hard struggle to raise itself up to communion with God. Your purpose is to hold communion with the Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Love; can you do this, or even attempt this, without coming away from the exercise brighter, calmer, hap-pier, stronger against evil? Make a vigorous effort to throw your whole soul into some very short petition, and the spirit of inertness and heaviness shall be exorcised. But if not, and thy mind be dry to the end, do not disquiet thyself. If only thou makest a sincere effort to draw near to God, all shall be well. He sees that thou hast a will to pray, and accounts the will for the deed.
EDWARD MEYRICK GOULBURN

Pray hardest when it is hardest to pray.
CHARLES H. BRENT

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 2 Corinthians 5:17

Earth and Heaven

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:17

HIS perfect peace has swept from sight
The narrow bounds of time and space,
And, looking up with still delight,
We catch the glory of His face.
AUGUSTA LARNED

IN every moment of our days, when once our hearts are yielded to His service, God is working in us and through us. Hitherto, perhaps, our little world has only been large enough to hold self and the present, But, gradually, through tender leadings and unfoldings, and, it may be, through pain and suffering, we come to learn life's lesson,--that it is God's world, not ours; that our existence is not finished and rounded off here, but forms part of one vast scheme to which mind and heart and spirit expand and grow, while all the horizon round them grows and expands too, until it touches the shore of the illimitable future, and we become conscious that earth and heaven are not so far separated but that the first is but the vestibule of the second,--imperfect, cloudy, full of broken fragments, but still part of the same Temple of God as that to which we shall pass in by and by.
H. BOWMAN

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Mark 9:23

Cast Every Day on Him

All things are possible to him that believeth.
MARK 9:23

My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
2 CORINTHIANS 12:9

IT is possible, I dare to say, for those who will in-deed draw on their Lord's power for deliverance and victory, to live a life in which His promises are taken as they stand, and found to be true. It is possible to cast every care on Him, daily, and to be at peace amidst the pressure. It is possible to see the will of God in everything, and to find it, as one has said, no longer a sigh, but a song. It is possible, in the world of inner act and motion, to put away, to get put away, all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and evil speaking, daily and hourly. It is possible, by unreserved resort to divine power, under divine conditions, to become strongest, through and through, at our weakest point; to find the thing which yesterday upset all our obligations to patience, or to purity, or to humility, an occasion today, through Him who loveth us, and worketh in us, for a joyful consent to His will, and a delightful sense of His presence and sin-annulling power. These are things divinely possible.
HANDLEY C. G. MOULE

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 2 Corinthians 3:18

Reflecting Christ

But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory.
2 CORINTHIANS 3:18

TRY life in me be shown!
Lord! I would henceforth seek
To think and speak
Thy thoughts, Thy words alone;
No more my own
FRANCES R. HAVERGAL

NOTHING short of the Life of the Eternal Son of God--the Holiness, the Purity of God, is the standard at which we are to aim; that is to be reproduced in our circumstances; the Divine Perfections are to be translated, reproduced in our life, our home, our trials, our difficulties, our age of the world. Let us ask ourselves, What is the special likeness of Christ that He would reproduce in me? What are the features of His Life that He calls me to imitate? What pattern would He set before me in my work, my circum-stances, my difficulties? What are the inspirations of grace that He would urge me to cultivate and cherish?
ARTHUR C. A. HALL

The Christian life must be in its own degree some-thing like the Master's own life, luminous with His hope, and surrounded by a bracing atmosphere which uplifts all who even touch its outer fringe.
HUGH BLACK

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Colossians 3:23

Serve His Will

And, whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.
COLOSSIANS 3:23

IF you love Him as I want you to do, you will offer Him the whole use of your day, as you open your eyes to the light of each morning, to be spent in active service or silent suffering, according to His good pleasure. You will not select the most agreeable task, but His task, whatever it may be; you will not disdain humble service, or be ambitious for distinguished service; you will lie, like a straw, on the current of His will, to be swept away and be forgotten, if it pleases Him, or to be caught up by His mighty hand and transformed thereby into a thunderbolt.
ELIZABETH PRENTISS

Let us pray Him, therefore, to shed abroad in us the mind that was in Christ; that we may offer up our-selves to be disposed of as He sees best, whether for joy or sorrow; to be slighted, or esteemed; to have many friends, or to dwell in a lonely home; to be passed by, or called to serve Him and His kingdom in our own land, or among people of a strange tongue; to be, to go, to do, to suffer even as He wills, even as He ordains, even as Christ endured, "who, through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God."
HENRY EDWARD MANNING

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Jeremiah 33:6

Center of the Soul

Behold, I will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.
JEREMIAH 33:6

Glory, honor, and peace, to every man that work-eth good.
ROMANS 2:10

TRUE peace is when the soul revolves around its centre, Almighty God, craving for nothing but what God continually supplies, its passions subdued to it-self, itself lovingly loyal to God, in harmony with its God and His laws. God made the soul for Himself, to have its bliss in His infinite, unchanging, exhaust-less love. The soul then "must needs be restless, until it repose in Him." Everything, whether it belongs to the keenest intellect, or the lowest senses, is an idol if the soul rests in it, apart from God. The soul's craving for peace is its natural yearning for its End, its Maker and its God. Since the soul is large enough to contain the infinite God, nothing less than Himself can satisfy or fill it.
E. B. PUSEY

With those who have made ready to receive Him in peaceful trust, He will come and dwell in love and joy; and great is their rest and blessedness.
ABBÉ GUILLORÉ

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 1 John 4:16

All He Thinks Of

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.
I JOHN 4:16

As flame streams upward, so my longing thought
Flies up with Thee,
Thou God and Saviour, who hast truly wrought
Life out of death, and to us, loving, brought
A fresh, new world; and in Thy sweet chains caught,
And made us free!
MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN

WHAT a blessed and glorious thing human existence would be, if we fully realized that the infinitely wise and infinitely powerful God loves each one of us, with an intensity infinitely beyond what the most fervid human spirit ever felt towards another, and with a concentration as if He had none else to think of! And this love has brought us into being, just that we might be taught to enter into full sympathy with Him, receiving His,--giving our own--thus entering into the joy of our Lord. This is the hope--the sure and certain hope--set before us,--sure and certain,--for "the mountains shall depart, and the hills be re-moved; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee."
THOMAS ERSKINE

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 2 Corinthians 12:9 2 Timothy 4:17

Strength For What Comes

Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2 CORINTHIANS 12:9

The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me.
2 TIMOTHY 4:17

TO His own the Saviour giveth
Daily strength;
To each troubled soul that liveth,
Peace at length.
KARL RUDOLPH HAGENBACH

REMEMBER that your work comes only moment by moment, and as surely as God calls you to work, He gives the strength to do it. Do not think in the morning, "How shall I go through this day? I have such-and-such work to do, and persons to see, and I have not strength for it." No, you have not, for you do not need it. Each moment, as you need it, the strength will come, only do not look forward an hour; circumstances may be very different from what you expect. At any rate you will be borne through each needful and right thing "on eagles' wings." Do not worry yourself with misgivings; take each thing quietly.
PRISCILLA MAURICE

God does not demand impossibilities.
ST. AUGUSTINE

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Philippians 2:14 Proverbs 25:28

Check Your Grumbling

Do all things without murmurings and disputings!
PHILIPPIANS 2:14

He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.
PROVERBS 25:28

BEHOLD, the paths of life are ours,--we see
Our blest inheritance where'er we tread;
Sorrow and danger our security,
And disappointment lifting up our head.
ANNA L. WARING

ONE valuable way of practising self-control is in checking grumbling, and an unnecessary display of vexation at petty inconveniences. A workman has fulfilled his task imperfectly, some order is wrongly executed, some one keeps you waiting unreasonably; people are careless or forgetful, or do what they have in hand badly. Try not to be disturbed; be just, and show the persons to blame where they are wrong, even (if it be needful) make them do the thing over again properly; but refrain from diffuse or vehement expressions of displeasure. A naturally quick, impetuous person will find that to cultivate a calm external habit is a great help towards gaining the inward even spirit he needs.
H. L. SIDNEY LEAR

A repining life is a lingering death.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Proverbs 3:27-28

Withhold Not Good

Withhold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbor, Go, and come again, and tomorrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.
PROVERBS 3:27,28

DO not only take occasions of doing good when they are thrust upon you; but study how to do all the good you can, as those "that are zealous of good works." Zeal of good works will make you plot and contrive for them; consult and ask advice for them; it will make you glad when you meet with a hopeful opportunity; it will make you do it largely, and not sparingly, and by the halves; it will make you do it speedily, without unwilling backwardness and delay; it will make you do it constantly to your lives' end. It will make you labor in it as your trade, and not consent that others do good at your charge. It will make you glad, when good is done, and not to grudge at what it cost you. In a word, it will make your neighbors to be to you as yourselves, and the pleasing of God to be above yourselves, and therefore to be as glad to do good as to receive it.
RICHARD BAXTER

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 37:23

Occupations of Every Day

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delighteth in his way.
PSALMS 37:23

SO her life was full of sunshine, for in toiling for the Lord
She had found the hidden sweetness that in common things lies stored;
He has strewn the earth with flowers, and each eye their brightness sees;
But He filled their cups with honey for His humble working bees.
FRANCESCA ALEXANDER

THE occupations of every day seem often trifling, we may do them without thinking as ordinary things, yet they are the scenes of our appointed lot--appointed by God for you and me. The ordering, the application of these ordinary occupations, is the appointing of the Divine purpose; it is for ourselves to carry them out. And secretly our character forms according as we handle them. Give thy heart to God Eternal, since thou art thyself eternal. join thy heart to what He has given thee to do. Join thy heart to His teaching, and thou becomest of a will like to His own will. Nothing comes by pure accident, not even the interruptions in our busy day. And such as follow on to know God's will see in all events what may lead to good, and so trust grows into a habit, as habit grows by perpetual use, till every circumstance may be seen to be but a fresh manifestation of the will of God working itself out in us.
T. T. CARTER

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 104:16-17 Matthew 10:31 Luke 12:6

More Value

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?
LUKE 12:6

Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
MATTHEW 10:31

The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon which He hath planted; where the birds make their nests; as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.
PSALMS 104:16,17

IT was a beautiful sight to see the herons come home, rising into the golden sunlight above the hills I could not tell from whence, and sailing on the glorious arches of their wings, on and on--always alone, and each as he came down with outstretched neck and pendent legs ready to settle, taking one last sweep down, then up, on to the summit of the tall Scotch fir, to take a survey of the realm, and, as another approached, plunging into the thick heads of lower trees with a loud good-night to his neighbors, and to all the fair land and water round about him, and a Deo Gratias for all his day's happiness, pleasant unto the ear of his dear God, if not consciously addressed to Him.
MY HEAVENLY FATHER CARETH FOR THEM, I AM OF MORE VALUE THAN MANY HERONS.
EDWARD WHITE BENSON

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