Joy And Strength

[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 25:17

Self: The Greatest Burden

The troubles of my heart are enlarged: Oh, bring Thou me out of my distresses.
--PSALMS 25:17

Low at His feet lay thy burden of carefulness,
High on His heart He will bear it for thee,
Comfort thy sorrows, and answer thy prayerfulness,
Guiding thy steps as may best for thee be.
--J. S. B. MONSELL

THE greatest burden we have to carry in life is self. The most difficult thing we have to manage is self. Our own daily living, our frames and feelings, our especial weaknesses and temptations, and our peculiar temperaments,--our inward affairs of every kind,--these are the things that perplex and worry us more than anything else, and that bring us oftenest into bondage and darkness. In laying off your burdens, therefore, the first one you must get rid of is yourself. You must hand yourself and all your inward experiences, your temptations, your temperament, your frames and reelings, all over into the care and keeping of your God, and leave them there. He made you and therefore He understands you, and knows how to manage you, and you must trust Him to do it.
--HANNAH WHITALL SMITH

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Isaiah 48:17

Made For a Purpose

I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
--ISAIAH 48:17

JUST as God leads me I would go;
I would not ask to choose my way;
Content with what He will bestow,
Assured He will not let me stray.
So as He leads, my path I make,
And step by step I gladly take,
A child in Him confiding.
--LAMPERTUS GEDICKE

HE has not made us for nought; He has brought us thus far, in order to bring us further, in order to bring us on to the end. He will never leave us nor forsake us; so that we may boldly say, "The Lord is my Helper; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me." We" may cast all our care upon Him who careth for us." What is it to us how our future path lies, if it be but His path? What is it to us whither it leads us, so that in the end it leads to Him? What is it to us what He puts upon us, so that He enables us to undergo it with a pure conscience, a true heart, not desiring anything of this world in comparison of Him? What is it to us what terror befalls us, if He be but a hand to protect and strengthen us?
--JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Isaiah 59:1-2

Conforming to God

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot bear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from You.
  --ISAIAH 59:1,2

ONE thing alone, dear Lord! I dread;--
To have a secret spot
That separates my soul from Thee,
And yet to know it not.
  --FREDERICK W. FABER

IT is a condition of enjoying continued insight into the laws which govern spiritual truth, that we should conform our moral being to that measure of truth which we already see. A deliberate rejection of duty prescribed by already recognized truth cannot but destroy, or at least impair most seriously, the clearness of our mental vision. A single act may thus involve grave inward deterioration; it may land the soul upon a lower level of moral life, where passion is more imperious, and principle is weaker; where a man is less his own master, and more readily enslaved to the circumstances and beings around him.
  --H. P. LIDDON

It is a strange but inflexible spiritual law, that those who aim at anything short of the best according to their conception, as God has given them light, will sooner or later come to grief. It is merely a matter of time.
  --CHARLES H. BRENT

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 34:7

Beyond Your Faults

Fret not thyself, it tendeth only to evil-doing.
--PSALMS 37:8 (R. V.)

To anxious, prying thought,
And weary, fretting care,
The Highest yieldeth nought;
He giveth all to prayer.
--PAUL GERHARDT

DO not be disquieted about your faults. Love without ceasing, and much will be forgiven you, because you have loved much. Faults perceived in peace, in the spirit of love, are immediately consumed by love itself; but faults perceived in a pettish fit of self-love disturb peace, interrupt the presence of God, and the exercise of perfect love. Vexation at a fault is generally more of a fault than the fault itself.
--FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON

Fight like a good soldier; and if thou sometimes fall through frailty, take again greater strength than before, trusting in my more abundant grace.
--THOMAS À KEMPIS

This alone is thy concern, to fight manfully, and never, however manifold thy wounds, to lay down thine arms, or to take to flight.
--LORENZO SCUPOLI

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Jeremiah 9:23-24

His Wisdom is Sufficient

Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.
--JEREMIAH 9:23, 24

WHAT dost thou fear? His wisdom reigns
Supreme confessed;
His power is infinite; His love
Thy deepest, fondest dreams above;--
So trust and rest.
--ADELAIDE A. PROCTER

THE firm belief of, and resting on, His power and wisdom, and love, gives a clear, satisfying answer to all doubts and fears. It suffers us not to stand to jangle with each trifling, grumbling objection, but carries all before it, makes day in the soul, and so chases away those fears that vex us only in the dark.
--ROBERT LEIGHTON

I feel that goodness, and truth, and righteousness are realities, eternal realities, and that they cannot be abstractions, or vapors floating in a spiritual atmosphere, but that they necessarily imply a living, personal Will, a good, loving, righteous God, in whose hands we are perfectly safe, and who is guiding us by unfailing wisdom.
--THOMAS ERSKINE

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Galatians 2:20 Ezekiel 34:12

Loving Every One

As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
  --EZEKIEL 34:12

The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.
  --GALATIANS 2:20

PERVERSE and foolish, oft I strayed,
But yet in love He sought me,
And on His shoulder gently laid,
And home rejoicing brought me.
  --SIR HENRY W. BAKER

TRY to feel, by imagining what the lonely Syrian shepherd must feel towards the helpless things which are the companions of his daily life, for whose safety he stands in jeopardy every hour, and whose value is measured to him not by price, but by his own jeopardy, and then we have reached some notion of the love which Jesus meant to represent; that Eternal tenderness which bends over us, and knows the name of each and the trials of each, and thinks for each with a separate solicitude, and gave itself for each with a sacrifice as special, and a love as personal, as if in the whole world's wilderness there were none other but that one.
  --FREDERICK WM. ROBERTSON

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Philippians 2:2-5

Inner Change

Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. . . . Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
--PHILIPPIANS 2:2, 5

JESUS, Thy all-victorious love
Shed in my heart abroad;
Then shall my feet no longer rove,
Rooted and fixed in God.
My steadfast soul, from falling free,
Shall then no longer move,
While Christ is all the world to me,
And all my heart is love.
--CHARLES WESLEY

LET our temper be under the rule of the love of Jesus: He can not alone curb it,--He can make us gentle and patient. Let the vow, that not an unkind word of others shall ever be heard from our lips, be laid trustingly at His feet. Let the gentleness that refuses to take offence, that is always ready to excuse, to think and hope the best, mark our intercourse with all. Let our life be one of self-sacrifice, always studying the welfare of others, finding our highest joy in blessing others. And let us, in studying the Divine art of doing good, yield ourselves as obedient learners to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. By His grace, the most common-place life can be transfigured with the brightness of a heavenly beauty, as the infinite love of the Divine nature shines out through our frail humanity.
--ANDREW MURRAY

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 1 Thessalonians 4:9 1 John 4:12

Resisting the Everyday Temptations

Ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
--1 THESSALONIANS 4:9

If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.
--1 JOHN 4:12

THIS is the great business and meaning of our life on earth: that we should more and more yield up our hearts to God's great grace of love; that we should let it enter ever more fully and more freely into us, so that it may even fill our whole heart and life. We must day after day be driving back, in His strength, the sin that doth so easily beset us, and the selfishness that sin has fastened in our hearts; and then His love will day by day increase in us. Prayer will win and keep it; work will strengthen and exercise it; the Bible will teach us how to know and prize it, how to praise God for it; the Holy Eucharist will ever renew and quicken its power in our hearts. And so (blessed be God!), love and joy and peace will grow in us, beyond all that we can ask or think; and He will forgive us, for love's sake, all the failures, all the faults in whatever work He has given us to do; and will bring us at last into the fulness of that life which even here He has suffered us to know; into that one Eternal Home, where Love is perfect, and unwearied, and unending; and where nothing ever can part us from one another or from Him.
--FRANCIS PAGET

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 2 Corinthians 10:5

Keeping the Focus

Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
  --2 CORINTHIANS 10:5

"I WILL lift up mine eyes unto the hills." The vision of God unseals the lips of man. Herein lies strength for conflict with the common enemy of the praying world known as wandering thoughts. If the eye is fixed on God, thought may roam where it will without irreverence, for every thought is then converted into a prayer.

Some have found it a useful thing when their minds have wandered off from devotion and been snared by some good but irrelevant consideration, not to cast away the offending thought as the eyes are again lifted to the Divine Face, but to take it captive, carry it into the presence of God and weave it into a prayer before putting it aside and resuming the original topic. This is to lead captivity captive.
  --CHARLES H. BRENT

Each wish to pray is a breath from heaven, to strengthen and refresh us; each act of faith, done to amend our prayers, is wrought in us by Him, and draws us to Him, and His gracious look on us. Neglect nothing which can produce reverence.
  --EDWARD B. PUSEY

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 61:4 Psalm 16:7

Not the Asking, But the Kneeling

I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever; I will trust in the covert of Thy wings.
--PSALMS 61:4

I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel. --PSALMS 16:7

WOULD it not be possible for every man to double his intellectual force by keeping much in the company of Infinite Wisdom?
--E. P. TENNEY

I cannot help the thought which grows steadily upon me, that the better part of prayer is not the asking, but the kneeling where we can ask, the resting there, the staying there, drawing out the willing moments in heavenly communion with God, within the closet, with the night changed into the brightness of the day by the light of Him who all the night was in prayer to God. Just to be there, at leisure from ourselves, at leisure from the world, with our souls at liberty, with our spirit feeling its kinship to the Divine Spirit, with our life finding itself in the life of God,--this is prayer. Would it be possible that one could be thus with God, listening to Him, speaking to Him, reposing upon His love, and not come out with a shining face, a gladdened heart, an intent more constant and more strong to give to the waiting world which so sadly needs it what has been taken from the heart of God? --ALEXANDER MCKENZIE

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 30:4

Deep Joy

Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.
--PSALMS 30:4

GLAD with Thy light, and glowing with Thy love,
So let me ever speak and think and move
As fits a soul new-touched with life from heaven;
That seeks but so to order all her course
As most to show the glory of that Source
By whom alone her strength, her life are given.
--C. J. P. SPITTA

OUR Christianity is apt to be of a very "dutiful" kind. We mean to do our duty, we attend church and go to our communions. But our hearts are full of the difficulties, the hardships, the obstacles which the situation presents, and we go on our way sadly, downhearted and despondent. We need to learn that true Christianity is inseparable from deep joy; and the secret of that joy lies in a continual looking away from all else--away from sin and its ways, and from the manifold hindrances to the good we would do--up to God, His love, His purpose, His will. In proportion as we do look up to Him we shall rejoice, and in proportion as we rejoice in the Lord will our religion have tone and power and attractiveness.
--CHARLES GORE

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference John 15:9

The Call to Live in Him

Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you; abide ye in my love.
--JOHN 15:9 (R. V.)

ABIDE IN ME: These words are the command of love, which is ever only a promise in a different shape. Think of this until all feeling of burden and fear and despair pass away, and the first thought that comes as you hear of abiding in Jesus be one of bright and joyous hope.
--ANDREW MURRAY

When love is heard inviting more trust, more love, the encouragement to trust, to love, goes beyond the rebuke that our love is so little, and we take heart to confide in the love that is saying, "Give me thine heart," expecting that it will impart itself to us, and enable us to give the response of love which it desires. For indeed it must be with the blessed purpose to enable us to love Him that our God bids us love Him; for He knows that no love but what He Himself quickens in us can love Him.

Therefore always feel the call to love a gracious promise of strength to love, and marvel not at your own deadness, but trust in Him who quickeneth the dead.
--JOHN MCLEOD CAMPBELL

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[nChrist]

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

Religion That Changes Us

And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.
  --COLOSSIANS 3:14 (R. V.)

THOU hatest hatred's withering reign;
In souls that discord maketh dark
Dost Thou rekindle love's bright spark,
And make them one again.
  --PAUL GERHARDT

WE have cause to suspect our religion if it does not make us gentle, and forbearing, and forgiving; if the love of our Lord does not so flood our hearts as to cleanse them of all bitterness, and spite, and wrath. If a man is nursing anger, if he is letting his mind become a nest of foul passions, malice, and hatred, and evil wishing, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
  --HUGH BLACK

Love me always, boy, whatever I do or leave undone. And--God help me--whatever you do or leave undone, I'll love you. There shall never be a cloud between us for a day; no, sir, not for an hour. We're imperfect enough, all of us, we needn't be so bitter; and life is uncertain enough at its safest, we needn't waste its opportunities.
  --JULIANA HORATIA EWING

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Proverbs 31:26 Romans 13:10

Lack of Kindness

Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
  --ROMANS 13:10

In her tongue is the law of kindness.
  --PROVERBS 31:26

THE worst kinds of unhappiness, as well as the greatest amount of it, come from our conduct to each other. If our conduct, therefore, were under the control of kindness, it would be nearly the opposite of what it is, and so the state of the world would be almost reversed. We are for the most part unhappy, because the world is an unkind world. But the world is only unkind for the lack of kindness in us units who compose it.
  --FREDERICK WM. FABER

You feel in some families as if you were living between the glasses of a microscope. Manner, accent, expression, all that goes to make up your "personality," all that you do or leave undone, is commented upon and found fault with.
  --H. BOWMAN

If you would be loved as a companion, avoid unnecessary criticism upon those with whom you live.
  --ARTHUR HELPS

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference James 2:8

Loving Others

If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well.
  --JAMES 2:8

DO you feel yourself alone and empty-hearted? Then you have necessity indeed for fortitude and brave endurance, but above all and before all you must get out of your solitude. You cannot command for yourself the love you would gladly receive; it is not in our power to do that; but that noble love which is not asking but giving,--that you can always have. Wherever your life touches another life, there you have opportunity. To mix with men and women in the ordinary forms of social intercourse becomes a sacred function when one carries into it the true spirit. To give a close, sympathetic attention to every human being we touch; to try to get some sense of how he feels, what he is, what he needs; to make in some degree his interest our own,--that disposition and habit would deliver any one of us from isolation or emptiness.
  --GEORGE S. MERRIAM

She [Annie Keary] did not try to set others right; she only listened to and loved and understood her fellow-creatures.
  --ELIZA KEARY

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