Joy And Strength

[nChrist]

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

His Will in Your Surroundings

As bond-servants [margin] of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. EPHESIANS 6:6 (R. V.)

LORD Jesus, turn us from the noise
Of endless strivings and empty joys,
To find forever Thy one true peace,
Rest from sorrow, from sin release!
HARRIET MCEWEN KIMBALL

CAN He not enable you to do that will from your heart, in your surroundings? Are you sorely tried by those surroundings? Are they, in themselves, humiliating to you, or exasperating to you? Are they full of acute heart-pangs, or heavy with a chronic heartache? Not one of these things is forgotten before your Lord. Your slightest pain finds response in His sympathy. But let that thought be but the steppingstone to this, that for you as for the slave-saint of Ephesus there lies open in that same Lord the blessed secret of a life which shall move amidst these same unwelcome surroundings as a life free, and at leisure, and at peace, full of love and rest, blessed and blessing; a life hid with Christ in God; a life in which everything, from your rising up to your lying down, the smallest cross and the largest, is seen in the light of the holy, the beloved, will of God, and so is met not with a sigh, or a murmur, but "from the soul."
HANDLEY C. G. MOULE

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Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalms 22:26 1 Corinthians 13:8

We Are Remembered

Love never faileth. 1 CORINTHIANS 8:8 (R.V.)

Your heart shall live for ever. PSALMS 22:26

DEATH has no bidding to divide
The souls that dwell in Thee;
Yes, all who in the Lord abide
Are of one family.
THOMAS H. GILL

WILL not our own lamented and beloved be there, in the array of happy spirits? Will they not hail our coming with delight? Do they not remember us now, even in the sight of God? For to see His face does not extinguish but perfect all holy loves. God's love gathers up and perfects all pure love like His own, all love that is for His sake. When we meet our beloved in Him, we shall both know and love them so as we have neither loved or known before.
HENRY EDWARD MANNING

She is not sent away, but only sent before; like unto a star, which, going out of our sight, doth not die and vanish, but shineth in another hemisphere: ye see her not, yet she doth shine in another country.
SAMUEL RUTHERFORD

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[nChrist]

Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Psalms 55:22

Thy Burden

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
PSALMS 55:22

To Thee I bring my care,
The care I cannot flee;
Thou wilt not only share,
But bear it all for me.
O loving Saviour, now to Thee
I bring the load that wearies me.
FRANCES R. HAVERGAL

CAST thy burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain thee"--burden and all. "Thee" is the greatest burden that thou hast! All other burdens are but slight, but this is a crushing burden. But when we come to the Lord with our burden, He just lifts up His child, burden and all, and bears him all the way home.
CHARLES A. FOX

He lays his affairs and himself on God, and so hath no pressing care; no care but the care of love, how to please, how to honor his Lord. And in this, too, lie depends on Him, both for skill and strength; and, touching the success of things, he leaves that as none of his to be burdened with, casts it on God, and since He careth for it, they need not both care, His care is sufficient. Hence springs peace, inconceivable peace.
ROBERT LEIGHTON

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Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Galatians 6:10 Mark 14:8

Make It Your Problem

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men.
GALATIANS 6:10

She hath done what she could.
MARK 14:8

VERY consoling words, if we can be sure they apply to us. Very pungent condemnation if they apply not, and we suffer opportunities to go by. The rule demands no impossibilities; but it does demand that every sphere, however humble, shall be filled with divine endeavors. You have not done what you could if you have not made it the problem of every day; how many burdens can I make lighter? how much heart sunshine can I shed about me? how much can I increase the sum of human blessing in the circle where my lines have fallen? How easily we slide into the delusion that we should do a great deal more good if we had the means, overlooking the means that lie close about us!
EDMUND H. SEARS

There is no act too trifling to be made by God the first link in a chain of blessing; whether some trifling incident is allowed on our part to drop unobserved, or is taken up and placed in its intended position, often depends on the entertainment we have given to some previously-suggested idea of duty.
SARAH W. STEPHEN

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Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Matthew 5:19

The Small Things

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven.
MATTHEW 5:19

THE great sterling duties, the exact truth of word, the resolute refusal to countenance wrong, the command of temper, the mastery of indolence, the unstained purity,--these, and such as these, form the character, and fashion our souls into instruments in God's hands for high and heavenly purposes in His Providence. But the carefulness over details, the watchfulness against faults which we know to be faults, but which, notwithstanding, seem venial, the devout regularity and attention in our private prayers, the invariable good-humor of our manners, the seeking for occasions of kindness and unselfishness, the avoidance of little temptations, the care not to cause little annoyances and little troubles,--to attend to all this for the sake of Christ our Master is the natural and fitting expression of a loving heart.
FREDERICK TEMPLE

The sins by which God's Spirit is ordinarily grieved are the sins of small things--laxities in keeping the temper, slight neglects of duty, sharpness of dealing.

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

Steady Prayer

Continuing steadfastly in prayer. ROMANS 12:12 (R. V.)

PRAYER is a preparation for danger, it is the armor for battle. Go not into the dangerous world without it. You kneel down at night to pray and drowsiness weighs down your eyelids. A hard day's work is a kind of excuse, and you shorten your prayer, and resign yourself softly to repose. The morning breaks, and it may be you rise late, and so your early devotions are not done, or done with irregular haste. It is no marvel if that day in which you suffer drowsiness to interfere with prayer be a day on which you betray Him by cowardice and soft shrinking from duty.

FREDERICK WM. ROBERTSON

PRAYER to God regular and earnest, never intermittent for any reason, never hurried over for any weariness or for any coldness; this is one chief means of keeping our spiritual growth healthy and alive. If we would live in any degree by that ideal which our better selves sometimes set before us, we must steadily maintain the habit of regular prayer. For whether or not we are conscious of it at the time, there is a calm and unceasing strength which can be thus engrafted on our souls, and thus only.

FREDERICK TEMPLE

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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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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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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,
Jesu, 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 Psalms 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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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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Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference 1 John 5:4

Worldly Winning

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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Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Deuteronomy 5:32

Fear of Trying

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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Author: Mary Wilder Tileston
Source: Joy and Strength
Scripture Reference Daniel 2:22

He Knows More

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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