Thoughts for the Quiet Hour Part 26

=November 10th.=

_A daily rate for every day. 2 Kings xxv. 30._

The acts of breathing which I performed yesterday will not keep me alive to-day; I must continue to breathe afresh every moment, or animal life ceases. In like manner yesterday's grace and spiritual strength must be renewed, and the Holy Spirit must continue to breathe on my soul from moment to moment in order to my enjoying the consolations, and to my working the works of G.o.d.--_Toplady._

=November 11th.=

_And when the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Jer. xviii. 4. (R. V.)_

G.o.d's fairest, highest place of service in the land that lies beyond will be filled by the men and women who have been broken upon the wheel on earth.--_G. Campbell Morgan._

=November 12th.=

_Examine yourselves. 2 Cor. xiii. 5._

If your state be good, searching into it will give you that comfort of it. If your state be bad, searching into it cannot make it worse; nay, it is the only way to make it better, for conversion begins with conviction.--_Bishop Hopkins._

=November 13th.=

_Choose you this day whom ye will serve. Josh. xxiv.

15._

CHOICE AND SERVICE--these were demanded of the Israelites; these are demanded of you, these only. Choice and service--in these are the whole of life.--_Mark Hopkins._

=November 14th.=

_Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Psa. xc. 1._

You cannot detain the eagle in the forest. You may gather around him a chorus of the choicest birds; you may give him a perch on the goodliest pine; you may charge winged messengers to bring him choicest dainties; but he will spurn them all. Spreading his lordly wings, and with his eye on the Alpine cliff, he will soar away to his own ancestral halls amid the munitions of rocks and the wild music of tempest and waterfall.

The soul of man, in its eagle soarings, will rest with nothing short of the Rock of Ages. Its ancestral halls are the halls of heaven. Its munitions of rocks are the attributes of G.o.d. The sweep of its majestic flight is Eternity! "Lord, THOU hast been our dwelling place in all generations!"--_Macduff._

=November 15th.=

_He hath said. Heb. xiii. 5._

If we can only grasp these words of faith, we have an all-conquering weapon in our hand. What doubt is there that will not be slain by this two-edged sword? What fear is there which shall not fall smitten with a deadly wound before this arrow from the bow of G.o.d's covenant? "He hath said!" Yes; whether for delight in our quietude, or for strength in our conflict, "He hath said!" must be our daily resort.

Since "He hath said" is the source of all wisdom, and the fountain of all comfort, let it dwell in you richly, as "a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life." So shall you grow healthy, strong, and happy, in the divine life.--_Spurgeon._

=November 16th.=

_Not I, but Christ liveth in me. Gal. ii. 20._

The wonder of the life in Jesus is this--and you will find it so, and you have found it so, if you have ever taken your New Testament and tried to make it the rule of your daily life--that there is not a single action that you are called upon to do of which you need be, of which you will be, in any serious doubt for ten minutes as to what Jesus Christ, if He were here, Jesus Christ being here, would have you do under those circ.u.mstances and with the material upon which you are called to act.

The soul that takes in Jesus' word, the soul that through the words of Jesus enters into the very person of Jesus, the soul that knows Him as its daily presence and its daily law--it never hesitates.--_Phillips Brooks._

=November 17th.=

_Who is my neighbor? Luke x. 29._

"Who is thy neighbor?" It is the sufferer, wherever, whoever, whatsoever he be. Wherever thou hearest the cry of distress, wherever thou seest anyone brought across thy path by the chances and changes of life (that is, by the Providence of G.o.d), whom it is in thy power to help--he, stranger or enemy though he be--_he_ is thy neighbor.--_A. P. Stanley._

=November 18th.=

_He which stablisheth us . . . in Christ, and hath anointed us, is G.o.d; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. 2 Cor.

i. 21, 22._

When a Christian is "sealed" by the Holy Ghost, "sealed" as the property of his Master, there will be no need to ask, "Whose image and superscription is this" upon the "sealed" one? The King's, of course.

Anyone can see the image.

Of what use is a "seal" if it cannot be seen?

Is the King's image visibly, permanently, stamped upon us? It is on every Spirit-filled, "sealed" believer.--_John McNeil._

=November 19th.=

_They shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. Zech. iv. 10._

It is joy to the Christian to know that the plummet is now in the hands of our great Zerubbabel, and that when He comes forth, the world's misrule shall be over. The false standards and false estimates of men shall be swept away. The standards of "expediency," of "conscience," of "every man thinking as he likes, if he is only _sincere_"--these, and all similar refuges of lies shall be like a spider's web. The measure of all things will be Christ, and Christ the Measurer of all things.

How everything will be reversed! What a turning upside down of all that now exists!

Blessed day, and longed for--the world's great jubilee, the earth's long-looked-for Sabbath, groaning creation's joy, and nature's calm repose! Who would not cry, "Come, Lord Jesus, and end this troubled dream! Shatter the shadows of the long, dark night of sin and sorrow, sighing and tears, despair and death!"--_F. Whitfield._

=November 20th.=

_In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John xvi. 33._

Tribulation is G.o.d's thres.h.i.+ng--not to destroy us, but to get what is good, heavenly, and spiritual in us separated from what is wrong, earthly, and fleshly. Nothing less than blows of pain will do this. The evil clings so to the good, the golden wheat of goodness in us is so wrapped up in the strong chaff of the old life that only the heavy flail of suffering can produce the separation.--_J. R. Miller._

=November 21st.=

_I . . . heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying . . . Write. Rev. i. 10, 11._

It is very sweet to note that a voice from heaven said to John, "Write."