Joy And Strength

[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Philippians 4:11

Accept Our Daily Bread

I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content.

PHILIPPIANS 4:11 (R. V.)

FORGIVE us, Lord, our little faith;
And help us all, from morn till e'en,
Still to believe that lot the best
Which is,--not that which might have been.
GEORGE ZABRISKIE GRAY

THOU givest within and without precisely what the soul needs for its advancement in a life of faith and self-renunciation. I have then only to receive this bread, and to accept, in the spirit of self-sacrifice, whatever Thou shalt ordain, of bitterness in my external circumstances, or within my heart. For whatever happens to me each day is my daily bread, provided I do not refuse to take it from Thy hand, and to feed upon it.
FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON

Judge that only necessary which God, in His eternal wisdom and love, proportions out unto us. And when thou comest hither, thou wilt come to thy rest; and as thou abidest here, thou wilt abide in thy soul's true rest, and know the preciousness of that lesson, and of whom thou art to learn it, even, in every state to be content.

ISAAC PENINGTON

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[nChrist]

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

The Best Thing

Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice.

PHILIPPIANS 4:4

REJOICE in hope and fear;
Rejoice in life and death;
Rejoice when threatening storms are near,
And comfort languisheth:
When should not they rejoice
Whom Christ His brethren calls,--
Who hear and know His guiding voice
When on their hearts it falls?
JOHN MOULTRIE

TO "give thanks to Him for all things," is, indeed, a very difficult duty; for it includes giving thanks for trials of all kinds; for suffering and pain; for languor and weariness; for the crossing of our wills; for contradiction; for reproaches; for loneliness; for privations. Yet they who have learned submission will not find it a hard duty; for they will so entirely love all that God wills and appoints, that they will see it is the very best thing for them. Hereafter they will see all the links of the chain, and how wonderfully even those have fitted, which at the time seemed to have no adaptation or agreement. This belief enables them to praise Him, and give thanks now for each thing, assured that as it has been, so it will be--that the God of love will do all things well.

PRISCILLA MAURICE

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Philippians 3:12

Not Attained

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Jesus Christ.
PHILIPPIANS 3:12

LET no man think that sudden in a minute
All is accomplished and the work is done;--
Though with thine earliest dawn thou shouldst begin it,
Scarce were it ended in thy setting sun.
FREDERIC W. H. MYERS

NOTHING so purifies the thoughts, heightens the acts, shuts out self, admits God, as, in all things, little or great, to look to Jesus. Look to Him, when ye can, as ye begin to act, to converse, or labor; and then desire to speak or be silent, as He would have you; to say this word, or leave that unsaid; to do this, or leave that undone; to shape your words, as if He were present, and He will be present, not in body, but in spirit, not by your side, but in your soul. Faint not, any who would love Jesus, if ye find yourselves yet far short of what He Himself who is Love saith of the love of Him. Perfect love is heaven. When ye are perfected in love, your work on earth is done. There is no short road to heaven or to love. Do what in thee lies by the grace of God, and He will lead thee from strength to strength, and grace to grace, and love to love.
EDWARD B. PUSEY

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference John 17:15

In Not Of

I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
JOHN 17:15

IN the hour of trial,
Jesus, plead for me;
Lest by base denial
I depart from Thee.
JAMES MONTGOMERY

OUR Lord would have His people to be in the world, and yet to be separate from it. He would have them be separated, not by isolation from it, but by living loyally under Him as their King, where His claims are denied and His rule is rejected; by courageously living in obedience to righteousness where desire is too generally the impelling and formative power. To live in the world as Christ's soldiers and servants; to witness for Him by word and deed as we live in obedience to His will--this is the separation which Christ teaches, this is the separation that gives glory to God. Woe be to us if we fail in expressing by loyal obedience here our loyalty to Christ as our King! To fail here is to bear stamped on us the brand of a traitor's moral cowardice, and a brand of greater shame than it no mortal brow can bear.
GEORGE BODY

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalm 119:143

Little Things

Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me; yet Thy commandments are my delights.
PSALMS 119:143

WHEN black despair beats down my wings, And heavenly visions fade away-- Lord, let me bend to common things, The tasks of every day;

As, when th' aurora is denied,
And blinding blizzards round him beat,
The Samoyed bends, and takes for guide
The moss beneath his feet.
WILLIAM CANTON

WHATEVER bad times may come, or whatever perplexity, there is almost always close at hand, waiting for one, some plain thing to be done. It may be a mere matter of routine an item in the day's regular business; it may be the exercise of some consideration for another; it may be only silent patience; but it is always something. And always one has the choice to do it or decline it. One can go through his work well or shirk it. One can consider his neighbor or neglect him. One can repress the fever-fit of impatience or give it wild way. And the perpetual presence of such a choice leaves no hour without guidance.
GEORGE S. MERRIAM

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Acts 21:14

Battle of Wills

The will of the Lord be done.
ACTS 21:14

BUT if in parallel to Thine
My will doth meekly run,
All things in heaven and earth are mine,
My will is crossed by none;
Thou art in me,
And I in Thee,--
Thy will--and mine--are done!
W. M. L. JAY

SUFFERINGS arising from anxiety, in which the soul adds, to the cross imposed by the hand of God, an agitated resistance, and a sort of unwillingness to suffer,--such troubles arise only because we live to ourselves. A cross wholly inflicted by God, and fully accepted without any uneasy hesitation, is full of peace as well as of pain. On the contrary, a cross not fully and simply accepted, but resisted by the love of self, even slightly, is a double cross; it is even more a cross, owing to this useless resistance, than through the pain it necessarily entails.
FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON

The basis of all peace of mind, and what must be obtained before we get that peace, is a cessation of the conflict of two wills-His and ours.
CHARLES G. GORDON

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[nChrist]

Title: Worldly Winning
Book: Joy and Strength
Author: Mary Wilder Tileston


Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
1 JOHN 5:4

WHAT is victory over the world? It is to cut off as far as we may, every hold which everything out of God has over us; to study wherein we are weak, and there seek in His strength to be made strong. Be your temptation the love of pleasure, it is to forego it; if of food, to restrain it; it of praise, to put forward others rather than yourself; if of being right in the sight of men, be content to be misjudged, and to keep silence; if of self-indulgence, use hardness; if of display, cut off the occasions and give to the poor; if of having thine own will, practice the submission of it to the wills of others.
EDWARD B. PUSEY

If we aspire to walk in the power of the new life, we must cast away all hindrances, and it must cost something we really value.
CHARLES G. GORDON

The Faith presses upon man his noblest desires as obligations, and makes their attainment possible by the gift of the Spirit.
BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT

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[nChrist]

Title: Fear of Trying
Book: Joy and Strength
Author: Mary Wilder Tileston

Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

DEUTERONOMY 5:32

NO duty, however hard and perilous, should be feared one-half so much as failure in the duty. People sometimes shrink from responsibility, saying they dare not accept it because it is so great. But in shrinking from duty they are really encountering a far more serious condition than that which they evade. It is a great deal easier to do that which God gives us to do, no matter how hard it is, than to face the responsibility of not doing it. We have abundant assurance that we shall receive all the strength we need to perform any duty God allots to us; but if we fall out of the line of obedience, and refuse to do anything which we ought to do, we find ourselves at once out of harmony with God's law and God's providence, and cannot escape the consequences of our failure.

J. R. MILLER

KNOWLEDGE is a call to action; an insight into the way of perfection is a call to perfection.

J. H. NEWMAN

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[nChrist]

Title: He Knows More
Book: Joy and Strength
Author: Mary Wilder Tileston

He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him.
DANIEL 2:22

TAKE it on trust a little while;
Soon shalt thou read the mystery right
In the full sunshine of His smile.
JOHN KEBLE

GOD is too wise not to know all about us, and what is really best for us to be, and to have. And He is too good, not to desire our highest good; and too powerful, desiring, not to effect it. If, then, what He has appointed for us does not seem to us the best, or even to be good, our true course is to remember that He sees further than we do, and that we shall understand Him in time, when His plans have unfolded themselves; meanwhile casting all our care upon Him, since He careth for us.
HENRY PARRY LIDDON

To be out of harmony with the things, acts, and events, which God in His providence has seen fit to array around us--that is to say, not to meet them in a humble, believing, and thankful spirit--is to turn from God. And, on the other hand, to see in them the developments of God's presence, and of the divine will, and to accept that will, is to turn in the opposite direction, and to be in union with Him.
THOMAS C. UPHAM

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 2 Samuel 22:29 Job 25:3

He Will Give Light

The Lord will lighten my darkness.
2 SAMUEL 22:29

Upon whom doth not His light arise?
JOB 25:3

HOPE, then, though woes be doubled,
Hope, and be undismayed;
Let not thy heart be troubled,
Nor let it be afraid.
This prison where thou art,
Thy God will break it soon,
And flood with light thy heart
In His own blessed noon.
PAUL GERHARDT

A CHRISTIAN may for many days together see neither sun nor star, neither light in God's countenance, nor light in his own heart, though even at that time God darts some beams through those clouds upon the soul; the soul again by a spirit of faith sees some light through those thickest clouds, enough to keep it from utter despair, though not to settle it in peace. In this dark condition, if they do as St. Paul and his company did, cast an anchor even in the dark night of temptation, and pray still for day, God will appear, and all shall clear up, we shall see light without and light within; the day-star will arise in their hearts.
RICHARD SIBBES

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Acts 10:6

What to Do?

Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?
ACTS 10:6

EVERY task, however simple, sets the soul that does it free; Every deed of love and mercy, done to man is done to Me.
HENRY VAN DYKE

FOR each one of us, whether on a bed of pain, in feebleness and uncertainty of purpose such as comes with ill-health or overstrained nerves, or whatever else may be our immediate condition, nothing is more urgent, nothing more behooves us than to ask, "What wouldst Thou have me to do?" For, whatever our state, however helpless and incapable, however little service to God or to our neighbor seems within our power, there is no doubt at all as to His willing us to do something. Not necessarily any great thing; it may be only some little message of sympathy and comfort to carry to one even more lonely than we are; it may be some tiny pleasure to a little child, or a kindly word or glance to one whose own fault has cut him off from general kindness and pity; it may be even only in humble patience to stand and wait till He makes His will plain, abstaining the while from murmur and fretfulness; but, in some shape or other, be certain that your Master and Lord hears and will answer your question, "What wouldst Thou have me to do?"
H. L. SIDNEY LEAR

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 1 Thessalonians 3:7

Follow Quietly

Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith.
1 THESSALONIANS 3:7

JUST as God leads I am content:
I rest me calmly in His hands;
That which He has decreed and sent--
That which His will for me commands--
I would that He should all fulfil;
That I should do His gracious will
In living or in dying.
LAMPERTUS GEDICKE

DIVINE Providence means the arrangement of all our life, not only of its bright side, but also of its dark. It may mean sickness as well as health; death as well as life; loss as well as gain; peril as well as safety; shipwreck by sea and accident by land; murrain to our flocks; sickness in our homes.
ANTHONY W. THOROLD

Howbeit your faith seeth but the black side of Providence, yet it hath a better side, and God shall let you see it. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God; hence I infer that losses, disappointments, ill tongues, loss of friends, houses or country, are God's workmen, set on work to work out good to you, out of everything that befalleth you. When the Lord's blessed will bloweth cross your desires, it is best, in humility, to strike sail to Him, and to be willing to be led any way our Lord pleaseth.
SAMUEL RUTHERFORD

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Deuteronomy 14:29

Caused by God

That the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.

DEUTERONOMY 14:29

FIRM against every doubt of Thee
For all my future way,--
To walk in heaven's eternal light
Throughout the changing day.
Ah! such a day as Thou shalt own
When suns have ceased to shine!
A day of burdens borne by Thee,
And work that all was Thine.

ANNA L. WARING

LET us give ourselves to God without any reserve, and let us fear nothing. He will love us, and we shall love Him. His love, increasing every day, will take the place of everything else to us. He will fill our whole hearts; He will deprive us only of those things that make us unhappy. He will cause us to do in general, what we have been doing already, but which we have done in an unsatisfactory manner; whereas, hereafter, we shall do them well, because they will be done for His sake. Even the smallest actions of a simple and common life will be turned to consolation and recompense. We shall meet the approach of death in peace; it will be changed for us into the beginning of the immortal life.

FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 2 Thessalonians 3:12

Live in Peace

We command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work.

2 THESSALONIANS 3:12

THERE is an order in our daily life,
Like that the holy angels constant keep;
And though its outward show seems but a strife,
There dwells within a peace like oceans deep.

JONES VERY

THE enemy of that grand central habit of interior patience is haste: haste of thought, haste of judgment, haste of manner, haste of speech. Even natural powers of every kind become true strength, when they work submissively and harmoniously under the direction of Divine light and the movement of Divine grace; and this disciplined subjection at every point under the dominion of Christ our Lord, ruling us by His grace, makes the soul the serene organ of the Holy Spirit, for the animating, controlling, and guiding of our souls.

WILLIAM BERNARD ULLATHORNE

We are conformed to Him in proportion as our lives grow in quietness, His peace spreading within our souls. Even amid all that outwardly disturbs us we have, if we have Him, the same peace, because He is our peace, sustaining our whole being.

T. T.CARTER

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Isaiah 51:3

Useful Life

Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

ISAIAH 51:3

If thou art living a righteous and a useful life, doing thy duty orderly and cheerfully where God has put thee, then thou art making sweeter melody in the ears of the Lord Jesus Christ, than if thou hadst the throat of a nightingale; for then thou in thy humble place art copying the everlasting harmony and melody which is in heaven.

CHARLES KINGSLEY

IN proportion as the perfect obedience of the life of Christ comes, through humility and prayer and thought, to be the constant aim of all our efforts; in proportion as we try, God helping us, to think and speak and act as He did, and through all the means of grace to sanctify Him in our hearts; we shall, with growing hope and with a wonder that is ever lost in gratitude, know that even our lives are not without the earnest of their rest in an eternal harmony; that through them there is sounding more and more the echo of a faultless music: and that He who loves that concord, He who alone can ever make us what He bids us be, will silence in us every harsh and jarring note; that our service too may blend with the consenting praise of all His Saints and Angels.

FRANCIS PAGET

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