Sound Words for Pilgrims

"I have called you friends" John 15:15

O Lord, Thou seest, Thou knowest, That to none my heart can tell

The joy and the love and the sorrow, The tale that my heart knows well.

But to Thee, O my God, I can tell it -- To Thee, and to Thee, Lord, alone;

For Thy heart my heart hath a language, For other hearts it hath none.

In the wise world speechless and lonely, For me is no heart but Thine;

Lord, since I must love Thee only Oh, reveal Thy heart to mine.

H. Suso

(pp. 89-92, Footprints for Pilgrims)

"Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." If you meditate upon these words you will never reach their profound depths, nor shall we even in eternity.  For who shall tell what friendship with Christ involves ?  No one can or ever will gauge the possible intimacy which it holds out to us.

We should diligently cultivate the enjoyment of the love of Christ that we may become moulded by it, so as to express it more in our very demeanour, and be surrounded by the holy atmosphere which it creates.

Whatever makes Christ more precious to us is of God.  Whatever comes between us and Christ is of the devil.

"It is I; be not afraid."  The realization of Christ's presence is the antidote to every possible fear, and the way to comfort people is the ministry of Christ in the power of the Spirit, to so present Him that they shall apprehend His presence.

The nearer we are to God the more we lose sight of ourselves and the better we are able to apprehend and to communicate His mind.

I do not know a happier employment than to sit down quietly before the Lord and let Him make impressions on your heart -- to let Him impress you with His own presence, and to produce whatever influences He will upon you.

By sitting at the feet of Jesus we shall both delight His heart and find ourselves in the place of untold and unfathomed blessing.

Many people think communion is having happy feelings.  It is being in the mind of God.  Communion is doing the right thing at the right moment in the right way.  Once get out of communion and you cannot do anything rightly.

Are we satisfied with light instead of cultivating love for Christ ?  The more light the better if affection goes with it, but if light be held without the heart it will not benefit us.  John 20 illustrates this.  John had more light about the resurrection than Mary, yet when he came to the sepulchre and found it empty he went home.  Mary had no light about the resurrection, yet as she waited there, weeping, Jesus revealed Himself to her.  It is to the heart and not the head that Christ reveals Himself, so the more heart you have the more you will get manifestations of Him.

To be near Christ is the great enjoyment of the spiritual life.  "Can the children of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them ?"  As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.  In heaven itself you would not be content never to come into contact with Christ; have you come into contact with Him today ?

--- E.D.

"Consider well Him who endured so great contradiction from sinners against Himself, that ye be not weary, fainting in your minds." (Hebrews 12:3, New Trans.)

O Lord, through tribulation  Our pilgrim journey lies,

Through scorn and sore temptation,  And watchful enemies;

Midst never-ceasing dangers  We through the desert roam,

As pilgrims here and strangers,  We seek the rest to come.

O Lord, Thou too once hasted  This weary desert through,

Once fully tried and tasted  Its bitterness and woe.

And hence Thy heart is tender  In truest sympathy,

Though now the heavens render  All praise to Thee on high.

J.G.D.

(pp. 137-140, Footprints for Pilgrims)

Have we that faith which so realizes Christ's presence so as to keep us as calm and composed in the rough sea as the smooth ?  It was not really a question of the rough or the smooth sea when Peter was sinking in the water, for he would have sunk without Christ just as much in the smooth as in the rough sea.  The fact was, the eye was off Jesus and on the wave, and that made him sink.  If we go on with Christ, we shall get into all kinds of difficulty, many a boisterous sea; but being one with Him, His safety is ours.

If a storm arise, and if Christ appear asleep, and insensible to the danger -- though "He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" -- as disciples we are in the same boat with Him.  The Lord give us to rest on that with undivided, undistracted hearts, for Christ is in the boat, as well as the water.

The nearer we are to God the more we want strenth to walk there.

"In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? " (Psalm 11:1)  Fear and unbelief would urge flight, as a bird, away from the scene to a place of refuge and human security.  Faith looks higher  -- "In Jehovah put I my trust."

"And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus." (Matthew 14:29)  This walk has no other foundation than, "If it be Thou"; that is to say, Jesus Himself.  There is no support, no possibility of walking, if Christ be lost sight of.  All depends on Him.

Now it solves every difficulty to ask -- not what harm is there in doing this or that --  but, why am I doing it ?  Is it for God or myself ?

God "is able to exceeding abundantly according to the power that worketh in us."  This is what we are to look for now; has your heart got hold of this ?  ... How little faith there is in the power of God !  ... I never can think of a power of evil that is not below His power.

The Christian cannot be in a difficulty that Christ is not sufficient for, nor on a long dark road where he cannot find Him enough.

We may pass through strait and difficulty places, but He is not the less faithful; only let us look to Him, and He is there, even when He seems to forsake us, in order to put faith to the proof, and to make us known to ourselves.

There is a God above all adverse circumstances and undesirable influences.  And our path for power is in letting patience have its perfect work ...  Trust Him.  He has power to work where we least expect it.

If we wait upon God, there is no danger.  If we rush on, He must let us see the consequences of it.

--- J.N.D

"The fulness of the blessing of Christ" (Romans 15:29 New Trans.)

Ye desolate children of sorrow !  As fleet as the bloom of May,

Your dreams of a brighter morrow, Your hopes have they passed away ?

The chill breath of time, does it wither  The boughs where ye build your nest ?

Ah, come then, ye mourners, come hither, I'll tell you of endless rest.

I'll tell you of Him who hath spoken  Sweet peace to my weary heart,

And healed it, though withered and broken, With love's all-availing art. 

It was He, 'twas the Lord of glory,  Who died on the cursed tree,

On Calvary, stricken and gory,   A suffering Lamb for me.

Sir E. Denny

(pp. 173-176, Footprints for Pilgrims)

Being alone with Jesus is the sinner's first position, it is the beginning of his joy, and no one has a right to meddle with it ... Sin casts us upon God alone ...  We must not surrender to any the right of God to talk with us alone about our sins.

"And they remembered His words."  (Luke 24:8)  How much mischief do we get into by not remembering God's words !  When the Lord Jesus was tempted He had the word of God at hand, and by that simple word He could claim the victory in the battle.

"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven."  ... How entirely has Christendom refused to learn this lesson of "the little child" !  She has consented to forget that it was a poor despised Galilean, a carpenter's Son, that suffered the death of the cross ...  He did not go to Calvary from kings' courts, or amid the acclamations of the world; but He was the rejected One ... "a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people." ... Christendom ... may boast of Calvary and of the Lamb of God in a certain way, but it has entirely lost sight of Nazareth and of the carpenter's Son.  It links the palace with the cross, greatness in the world, wealth and ease with the confession of Jesus and of the gospel.

Nothing perhaps has been a more common source of ... falling out by the way than the holding of favourite religious opinions, or the undue, disproportioned estimations of certain doctrines or points of truth.

If we were only happy in Him, we should work much better for Him.  It is joy in Christ that gains victory over the world.  Why are we in subjection to the world ?  Just because we have not found in Christ all the joy we ought to find.

He was a divine visitor to this world, a heavenly stranger among men ... He had not where to lay His head while He was visiting their necessities with all the resources of God.  This is the ideal of a saint of God -- to be independent of all this world can give, while with open heart and lavish hand bestowing upon it all the benefits and blessings of God.

It is one thing to be the advocate of Christianity, and another to be the disciple of it.  And though it may sound strange at first, far easier is it to teach its lessons than to learn them.

Worldliness and selfishness have no power to breathe the atmosphere of the kingdom of God.

Are our hearts upon such enjoyments as God can sanction and Jesus share with us ?

We need not so much to covet information about Him as power to use divinely what we know.

--- J.G.B.

"Then one said unto Him, 'Behold, Thy mother and Thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with Thee.'  But He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples, and said, 'Behold my mother and my brethren ! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother'." (Matthew 12:47, 49-50)

The circle of Thine own  My heart must hold most dear,

The dwelling of the Holy One,  Who represents Thee here.

But oh ! when this is past,  "Far better" lies beyond

With Thee, who mad'st that circle loved,  Who art Thyself its bond.

(pp. 189-192, Footprints for Pilgrims)

Whenever there is a work of grace in souls they are drawn together in the bonds of divine love.

How many of us fail to adjust the claims of God and of His people with family ties !  To be without natural affection is a given sign of the last and perilous times; but if it become absorbing, or if it be elevated beyond love to the brethren, and assume the supreme and governing motive of our lives, we could not be in the spirit of ... our blessed Lord.

Spiritual ties, if sometimes slighted, are never sundered.

I feel increasingly that the bond which knits our hearts together is indestructible because it is Christ.  Human affection is beautiful in its place, and the heart gets at times very hungry for it, but Christ alone can satisfy.

Domestic happiness is sometimes a great barrier to waiting for the Lord.  It may come between the soul and Christ, and thus the Lord strips some of us, and we wait, and are solitary while waiting, because He cannot trust us with too much affection in this world.  He loves us so much that He is jealous over us, and wants us for Himself.

It is exceedingly dangerous to listen to the advice of a relative in the things of God ... relatives look through the medium of their claims, or their natural affection, and hence the eye not being single cannot judge aright in the presence of God.

I have long since learned (from Matthew 12:46-50) that spiritual ties are closer than the closest of natural ties, and that the state of the church today has largely resulted from the failure to recognize this truth.

"Love is of God."  Does a saint love you, divinely love you ? Trace it back to the heart of God.

Of necessity those who are closest to Christ will be themselves drawn closer together. 

It is only where divine affections for the people of God exist in the heart, as so markedly exemplified in Moses and in Paul, as well as in Daniel and Ezra, that there can be power in intercession on their behalf.  And may it not be suggested that the urgent need of today is that of intercessors ?  holy men and women who, divinely taught and filled with the Spirit, shall be enabled, like Epaphras, to labor fervently for the saints in prayer.

"The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and soul."  The root of all discords in the church of God is the lack of the Spirit's power; where He works unhinderedly in any company of saints, because ungrieved, there must be unity ... The lack of enjoyed unity in any company is due to the absence of the power of the Holy Spirit.

--- E.D. 

"My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9)

My faith looks up to claim that touch divine,

Which robs me of this fatal strength of mine,

And leaves me resting wholly, Lord, on Thine.

Yes, make me such an one as Thou canst bless,

Meet for Thy use through very helplessness;

Thine, only Thine, the glory of success.

(pp. 37-40, Footprints for Pilgrims)

The path of strength ... is the being made sensible of our own weakness, so that divine strength, which will never be a supplement of flesh's strength, may come in.

That self should feel self nothing ... is a most divine work.

Where shall we find strength for practical separation to God, unless in God Himself ?

The nothingness and incompetentcy of all flesh must be felt where it would be disposed to think itself competent.  It must find its pretensions arrested and set aside when it has ... such; it must find itself consciously weak where it might hope to be strong or capable of something.  As to what self would lean on, it must find itself a hindering flesh where it would pretend to be a helping one ... We must be humbled when we are not humble, or in danger of not being so.

Our very helplessness is our resource.  We find that God Himself must come in because we can do nothing.

We need God's power to be little.

He refreshes the spirit, raises above weakness and pain ... Think much on Jesus (I do not mean as if you could think much in your weak state, but looking to Him), and lean on Him as a sick child lies in its mother's arms, because it has no strength -- not because it can do much.

It is a great deal ... to get the knowledge of self -- one's total want of strength ... to know enough of "I" to be glad to get rid of it.  This is the process of Romans 7.  Peace by progress ... so as to be content with self, is found to be impossible ... In the following chapter the way of deliverance is unfolded.  Here only the Deliverer is named, and the truth is brought out that the deliverance is complete and immediate, and only thankfulness remains for us ... "I thank God": a deep and wonderful change ... the soul occupied with God instead of self, and occupied with Him in thanksgiving.

How hard it is to receive that the work of God and of His Christ is always in weakness ! The rulers of the people saw in Peter and John unlearned and ignorant men ... The thorn in the flesh made Paul despised, and he conceived it would be better if that were gone ... It is God's rule of action, if we may so say, to choose weak things.  Everything must rest on God's power; otherwise God's work cannot be done according to His mind ... For the work of God we must be weak, that the strength may be of God; and that work will last when all the earth shall be moved away.

I am accused of letting things take their own course too much.  Still, it seems to me that I trust in God that the work is His own.  If I can help in that work it is a favour which He confers on me, but I think that often, when we wish to guide and govern too much, faith is wanting.

--- J.N.D.

"In Thy light we shall see light." (Psalm 36:9)

Though trials and afflictions May cast their shadow o'er us,

Thy love doth throw a heavenly glow Of light on all before us.

That love has smiled from heaven, To cheer our path of sadness;

And lead the way through earth's dark day, To realms of joy and sadness.

--- H.W.

(pp. 161-164, Footprints for Pilgrims)

The next step we should take is the one Satan sets himself to hinder.

--- J.B.S.

Hold on to the highest rung of the ladder -- Satan or friends may give you a knock across the knuckles, but hold on.

--- J.B.S.

All that we pass through is that we may get a fresh view of Christ, or a deepening of a former one; but often we are so occupied with the circumstances, or ourselves in the circumstances, that we fail to learn the lesson God would teach us. 

--- C.T.

David's inordinate tenderness only paved the way for Absalom's open rebellion.  Terrible warning ! Deal tenderly with evil, and it will assuredly rise to a head, and crush you in the end.  On the other hand, meet evil with a face of flint, and your victory is sure.  Sport not with the serpent, but at once crush it beneath your foot.  Plain, unflinching decision is, after all, the safest and happiest path.  It may be trying at first, but the end is peaceful.

--- C.H.M.

He has not suffered you to walk smoothly down the streams of life, but by large and rough billows has dashed you on the promises.

--- V.P.

"My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work."  His will and His work.  There are not many considerations for the servant of Christ; there is only the will of the Father, and the work of the Father.

--- E.P.C.

You say, "You make a great deal of a meeting."  I say, "I cannot make enough of being in the presence of the Son of God."

--- E.P.C.

A young man in my office, going abroad, said, "I am going in for money," etc.  I believe Christians ought to have something they are going in for.  I am going in "to be filled with all the fulness of God."  Nothing less.  It is all in the heart of God that we should have this.

--- E.P.C.

I have often thought that the ideal way of speaking would be to so conscious of the Lord's presence as to have no eyes for the saints who are present.  Indeed, this should always be the case, and then one would only seek to commend oneself to the Lord.  Alas!  how seldom this is the case.  And yet, even in preaching the apostle says, "As from God, and as before God, we speak in Christ."  This would be the perfection of speaking.

--- E.D.

Simeon "blessed God." (Luke 2:28) "And Simeon blessed them." (ver. 34) When you bless God you will be able to bless other people, for all service must be carried on in the spirit of worship.  No service is effective that is not the overflowing of the heart.

--- E.D.

We are flattered into good thoughts of people, and slighted into hard ones.

--- J.G.B.

"To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:19)

O Lord !  Thy rich, Thy boundless love

No thought can reach, no tongue declare;

O give our hearts its depths to prove,

And reign without a rival there.

From Thee, O Lord, we all receive,

Thine, wholly Thine, alone we'd live.

Gerhardt

(pp. 157-160, Footprints for Pilgrims)

"Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." Fellowship with the Father is to be filled with His thoughts, His desires, His objects and His affections.  So also with fellowship with the Son ....  It is our privilege to be taken out of ourselves altogether, to be lost in the affections and aims of the Father and the Son !  ... Self disappears before such a blessed possiblity.  Shall I cling to my own thoughts and purposes when I may be occupied with those of the Father and the Son ?  Shall I have my own affections when I may be possessed with those that fill the heart of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ ?  Far be the thought ! Rather let me be lost in this illimitable sea of bliss opened out before me in the marvellous grace of God.

It is written, "All things are possible to him that believeth"; we read the words, do not doubt them, and yet we seldom think of the possibility of their being verified in our own experience.

Circumstances may be the form of the expression of God's will for us, but the normal thing for the Christian should be the inward apprehension of the Lord's mind.  "I will guide thee, having mine eye upon thee."  If this is true, we have to wait until we hear His voice, and if that attitude be maintained, I am sure that we never should be confounded.

It must ever be remembered that guidance is a matter of faith, not sight.

The Christian ought to be the most dignified person in the world.  We do not think half enough of ourselves as we are before God.

(Galations 6:14) If the cross be applied to ourselves and then to the world, you have two crucified things, and consequently there could not be the least attraction between the two.  That, therefore, is the true way of overcoming the attractions of the world.

When the heart is at leisure from itself, through being satisfied with Christ, the Holy Ghost is free to lead it out into all the circle of God's interests, whether as regards the church, His ancient people, or the world.

An open door in service is from the Lord, and not from man.  We may therefore, be independent of man altogether, and we shall be if we keep our eyes wholly upon the Lord, remembering He always sets an open door before us if we keep His Word and do not deny His Name.  (see Rev. 3:8)

"As thy days, so shall thy strength be."  (Deut. 33:25)  The whole force of this scripture depends upon the connnection.  The last words of verse 24 are, "Let him dip his foot in oil"; that is, in its Christian interpretation, let him walk in the power of the Holy Ghost, and then his shoes should be as iron and brass -- a firm and consistent walk, and his spiritual strength should never decay.  As thy days, thy strength shall be.

--- E.D.

 

"Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us." (Hebrews 12:1)

Is it some gently-stealing breeze,  The wiles of Nature, when at ease,

That bears a poisonous breath;

That slowly draws the heart away  From Christ, its Rick, and only stay;  Nor dreams, till far away,

How all is stamped with death ?

Is it some loved and kindred heart, From which we cannot bear to part,

Round which we fondly cling ?

We little know the danger here, Till that which to our souls too dear Has weaned us from our proper sphere, 

Has clipped our soaring wing.

(pp. 125-128, Footprints for Pilgrims)

Cares are most subtle things, because they enter as necessary duties, and there is no sin in doing one's duty.  But if these duties choke the word and a man loses his soul through it, what then ?

"What harm in being rich ? " a person once asked me.  If it shuts you out of heaven, is there any harm in that ?  "Oh, I did not think of that ! ... "  The evil is not in the things themselves, but the love in the heart for them.

It is a terrible thing if we, as Christians, have not this craving, this hungering and thirsting after a greater enjoyment of God: for where this is not, deadness and apathy of soul have come in.

There is no such thing recognized in scripture as a Christian doubting he is saved.  And it is all a totally false pretension of humility.  If my Father forgives me, and I doubt His forgiveness, I am not trusting Him ...  Let a man fear temptation, doubt his own heart -- that is another thing; but not doubt God, or fear God.

There may be a thousand and one things to vex me if self is of importance; they will not vex me at all if self is not there to be vexed ... What rubs we get when not walking with God, and thinking only of self !  There is no such deliverance as that of having no importance in one's own eyes.

When the eye is ... upon God self is forgotten; if not, I am thinking of the slights I receive, and neither faith nor grace are in exercise.

Common duties do not rob us of Him; from these the heart returns with fresh delight into its own centre.  It is the heart clinging to vanity that spoils our joy; it is anything which exalts self and lowers Christ -- an idle thought, even, if allowed in the heart.

If a thing is a snare to me I must give it up entirely.  "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin."  Different things are snares to different people ... It is an individual thing with God.  I cannot judge what may be a snare to you.  If it is a snare, let it go.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."  Purity of heart (is) the absence of what would shut out God.

Alas !  feeble is he who even unconsciously leans upon man.

We have to watch, for the enemy always does, and if we are not looking actively to the Lord we lose our safeguard, and when distracted from Him he gets in, and often unconsciously ...  and then all the feebleness of walk which flows from the heart not realizing Christ as motive and power, the light of His presence, and the soul in the light before Him.

--- J.N.D.

 

 

"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up." (James 4:10)

Low at Thy feet, Lord Jesus,  This is the place for me,

Here I have learned deep lessons -- Truth that has set me free.

Free from myself, Lord Jesus, Free from the ways of men;

Chains of thought that have bound me, Never shall bind again.

None but Thyself, Lord Jesus, Conquered this wayward will;

But for Thy love constraining, I had been wayward still.

(pp. 177-180, Footprints for Pilgrims)

God demands a complete submission to His revealed will.   He demands that the world should submit to Jesus: all those who will not shall be forced to do so when judgment comes, and then to their own confusion and endless sorrow.  God presents His Son in humilation in order to save the world, but without submission to Jesus all is useless, because this is what God requires and values ... God will have a surrender of the heart to Jesus as Saviour and Lord.

(Matthew 11:20-30)  In the midst of a world of evil Jesus remained the sole revealer of the Father, the source of all good...  He calls all those who are weary and heavy laden ... If it was the sense of sin which burdened them, so much the better.  Every way the world no longer satisfied their hearts -- they were miserable, and therefore the objects of the heart of Jesus ... The love of the Father ... which in the Person of the Son sought out the wretched, would bestow rest ... on every one that came to Jesus.  It was the perfect revelation of the Father's name to the heart that needed it; and that by the Son; peace, peace with God.  They had but to come to Christ: He undertook all and gave rest.  But there is a second element in rest. There is more than peace through the knowledge of the Father in Jesus.  And more than that is needed; for even when the soul is perfectly at peace with God, this world presents many causes of trouble to the heart.  In these cases it is a question of self-will.  Christ, in the consciousness of His rejection, in the deep sorrow caused by the unbelief of the cities in which He had wrought so many miracles, had just manifested the most entire submission to His Father, and had found therein perfect rest to His soul.  To this He calls all that heard Him, all that felt the need of rest to their own souls.  "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me," that is to say, the yoke of entire submission to His Father's will, learning of Him how to meet the trials of life; for He was "meek and lowly in heart," content to be in the lowest place at the will of His God.  In fact nothing can overthrow one who is there.  It is the place of perfect rest to the heart.

We never get God's fullest blessings till we are where the flesh is brought down and destroyed ... We cannot get into the simple joy and power of God till we accept the place of lowliness and humiliation -- till the heart is emptied of what is contrary to the lowliness of Christ.

The Christian is humble ... because he has given up seeking good in himself, to adore the One in whom there is nothing else.

--- J.N.D.