Sound Words for Pilgrims

"Serving the Lord with all lowliness" Acts 20:19 (New Trans)

Oh, to be but emptier, lowlier  Mean, unnoticed and unknown,

And to God a vessel holier, Filled with Christ, and Christ alone;

Naught of earth to cloud the glory,

Naught of self the light to dim,

Telling forth the wondrous story,

Emptied -- to be filled with Him !

P.G.

Every one of us that has been called of God finds more or less that he is isolated unto Him that called Him  ... Christ was apart to God.

Surely in our Father's house not those who have gone on well in this world, as you might have done ... but those who have been called on service, will have most joy in their retrospect.

If one could but be nothing, He might use us more.  The carpenter can use his saw, or file, or hammer without fear of its boasting of the work being its own.  If God used His children without a good deal of discipline to them accompanying they would be spoilt and boast in what was wrought as being theirs and not His.  He loves us too much for that.

The eye that is most anointed will not be the first to see failure in others, and the soul that knows most of walking under the yoke with the Master will not be the first to undertake the putting right, according to its own mind, of what halts and limps in others.

Prayer is sure work and the harbinger of blessing ... and often what sets us a praying for more is a first dropping of His rich love and grace.

Through evil report and through good report Paul had to pass, and so far as any accusation against me is known to me as not true ... I do not think one need to be unhappy about it ... But there is a reward for our bearing false accusations.  (Matthew 5:11, 12)

We are but leaden pipes to let the water down from the cistern above --- dry till it flows in above and dry if it ceases to flow in .  It is good to remember this at all times and to walk humbly in the truth of it ...  I found it useful (the remembrance of it) in praying before speaking.  Oft not a word seemed with me to give, and the spreading out before the Lord His estimate of the worthiness of His Son to be spoken about, and His will that He should be announced, has been followed by a full fresh flow of water of the word of life.

Believe me, you can only plead with God as you know Christ. He alone is the channel by which God can bless ... The power of intercession is a great thing to the servant of God.

It ennobles a Christian immensely to know and to feel that he is a channel through which the life of Christ is to flow out.

Happy the person who has an empty vessel and God ever ready to fill.  Unhappy they who have no empty vessel ... I doubt whether many know the sweetness of going into the presence of God as a channel or pipe to be filled in order to bring out what is wanted for others, saying, "I have got the ear and heart of Christ".

Which is most worthy to occupy our thoughts --- the littleness of our love or the fulness of that love which passes knowledge ?

--- G.V.W.

"If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be." (John 12:26)

Take Thou our hearts, and let them be 

For ever closed to all but Thee;

Thy willing servants let us wear  The seal of love for ever there.

Ah, Lord ! enlarge our scanty thought, 

To know the wonders Thou hast wrought;

Unloose our stammering tongues to tell  Thy love, immense, unsearchable.

DESZLER

I AM learning that no servant can lead another beyond the measure of his own grace ... The Spirit honors the word spoken where it has been effectual in the speaker.

Surely if I propound grave things --- the gravest --- and am not deeply affected myself, I cannot expect my word to produce in my hearers a greater effect than it has produced on myself.

I believe that in conversion it is a great thing to have a good beginning; and a good beginning is always marked with deep repentance.  If repentance does not mark the beginning, there is not depth in the conversion.

There are no people so hard to teach as those who imagine that they are more advanced than they are.

It is within the power of the feeblest and humblest to take such an interest in one another as to give the sense of Christ's love ... But then, to serve one another truly, we must get rid of self.

If in the world no man of ability surrenders because of the difficulties to be encountered --- be he soldier or lawyer --- how much less should the man of God surrender because of difficulties.  Difficulties to faith are God's opportunities.

Whatever God is most set for, Satan is most set against.

I believe every one ought to help, as far as in him or her lies, to rescue souls, and I think the more you are in concert with the heart of Christ, the more you will do so.  I often say, If I were very near Him I could not get alongside a sinner without telling him of a Saviour, or a saint without telling him of Christ his life in heaven.

I know very well that a servant has to go through much in order that he might be fit for his Master's use.  No real servant graduates early.

I find that it was easier to get Israel out of Egypt than to get them into Canaan.  Each step in advance evokes more opposition than the previous step; but then God is more and more to us as we advance, and this is everything to the devoted heart. 

"When I am weak, then am I strong"  It must ever be a losing on man's side when it is gaining on Christ's side.

I desire that the Lord may give you a higher line of service, and that you may be assured by Him that He wants you to be more His "friend".  It is not great acts which convey the assurance of the greatest love.  The greatest love of all can say, "The very hairs of your head are all numbered".  The more minute the attention the greater the true love and interest.

--- J.B.S.