My Father, it is dark! Child, take my hand, Cling close to Me; I'll lead thee through the land, My footsteps seem to slide! Thine eyes to Me, then in these slipp'ry ways Oh Father, I am weary ! Child, lean thy head Upon My breast; it was My love that spread Rest, rest for aye above. Unknown. THE CHRISTIAN SERVICE. Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men: for ye serve the Lord Christ. Col. iii. 22-24. We must work while it is day; but work not for life, that is too hard work for us, that is impossible; but from life we shall work, and then it will not be in vain in the Lord. Marsh. A true faith in Christ Jesus will not suffer us to be idle. No; it is an active, lively, restless principle; it fills the heart so that it cannot be easy till it is doing something for Jesus Christ. George Whitefield. Shall I grudge to spend my life for Him, who did not grudge to shed His life-blood for me? Beveridge. We owe Christ an eternity of love. Unknown. "ALL THIS I DID FOR THEE-WHAT DOEST THOU FOR ME?" I gave My life for thee, My precious blood I shed, That thou might'st ransomed be, I spent long years for thee, Of joy thou mightest know. My Father's house of light, I left for earthly night, For wanderings sad and lone. Hast thou left aught for Me? I suffered much for thee, More than thy tongue may tell, Of bitterest agony, To rescue thee from hell. I suffered much for thee; What dost thou bear for Me? And I have brought to thee, Down from My home above, My pardon and my love. Great gifts I brought to thee; O let thy life be given, Thy years for Me be spent, And joy with suffering blent. And I will welcome thee. Unknown. It is not the work we do on earth that makes the whole of life, but it is the way in which we do that work-it is the motive. "Thou, God, seest me." Unknown. No action will be considered as blameless unless the will was so; for by the will the act was dictated. Seneca. God takes men's hearty desires and will, instead of the deed, where they have not power to fulfil it; but He never took the deed instead of the will. Baxter. Whatever you do for Christ, put your whole soul into it. C. H. Spurgeon. It is false humility which makes us say, "I can never do any good," for the meaner the instrument, the more is the glory of God displayed in doing good with it, and as it is all God's doing, and not ours, we have no reason to be proud of it, but rather to be abased at the sight of our own unfitness. M. J. Graham. Responsibilities always follow upon being used by the Lord. Don't be troubled because you cannot speak for Jesus as you would. His strength is made perfect in your weakness. When you think you speak well for Him, you may find He does not own it at all. When you think you speak in utter weakness, you may find much fruit. Communion with God about all your work for Him is the real power. From the knees to the work, and from the work to the knees, ensures fruit in God's time and way. J. G. Gregory. God fits His instruments for His work. Unknown. What God inclines His people to, He enables them to fulfil, and when finished He accepts. Works undertaken for God in faith, with an eye to God's glory, shall be established. We may be always sure of success when we give up our will to God's will. Unknown. The Lord will not bless us in those things wherein we have any contest with Himself. Satan cares not where we run, if we are not on a specific errand for the Lord Jesus. He listens delighted to the eloquence that saves no one. He will lift the latch for you at each door in your district, if you will go in and only speak of books, and men, and sermons, and health. He does not fear your wringing some religious remarks out of your own dry heart. It is the power of the HOLY GHOST he dreads. If you hold not the hem of a present Saviour's garment in the one hand, reaching out the other for a hold of a needy sinner's hand, crying in heart to the Spirit of Love to make them meet, no harm is done in that house to the cause of the enemy. One more powerless mention of the Saviour, one failure more to record that is all. But the more struggle you have had to get out the word you long to say, if it makes you think well, and pray to say it in the right way, the more likely it will be that Jesus will bless it. 66 'Oh, that the friend I love were with the great Physician that is now making sad hearts rejoice, and wicked men good, and sins of a long life to be blotted out for ever; for He would recover him!" Does your heart never say so? Will not God, who has brought a perishing one within your reach, who has provided the place, the opportunity, the willing ear, open up His way for you to speak of His own love? Might we not all become so identified with Him we serve, so consecrated to Him, that speaking were less needed? might we not all be so one with Himself, as that the very presence of His people should speak for their Lord? Five minutes-prayed for, watched for, and not let slip when found-is long enough to tell a friend, a fellow-workman, or a stranger, about his danger, and immediate salvation through the Blood of the Lamb. Few words are needed when the heart is full. They will not often give offence, if the love that prompts them gushes up from the heart's depths, and is very modestly spoken. The soul-gatherer's eye must rest on Jesus-never lower. The word which goes most directly home, may sometimes awaken opposition only. God seldom makes use of one means only to bless a soul. Follow that man with a prayer. He has gone far from you; he has not gone from God. Follow him with prayer at his work, in the railway-carriage, on the shipdeck, at the mess, in the dance, on a sick-bed, on a death-bed, God can meet him. 66 If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth the soul, doth not he know it? and shall he not render to every man according to his works? "The Soul-Gatherer." The world is nothing less than a great stranding wreck; men are perishing, and the great duty of the hour is to seek to S |