I thought to myself, “When I get out to China, I shall have no claim on any one for anything; my only claim will be on God.
Oh, for eloquence to plead the cause of China, for a pencil dipped in fire to paint the condition of this people.
Unless you intend your wife to be a true missionary, not merely a wife, home-maker, and friend, do not join us.
When we work, we work. When we pray, God works.
O Lord, how happy should we be If we would cast our care on Thee, If we from self would rest; And feel at heart that One above, In perfect wisdom, perfect love, Is working for the best!
I am more than ever convinced that if we were to take the directions of our Master and the assurances He gave to His first disciples more fully as our guide, we should find them to be just as suited to our times as to those in which they were originally given.
May we all, while living down here, in the world, but not of it, find our home in the heavenly places to which we have been raised, and in which we are seated together with Christ. Sent into the world to witness for our Master, may we ever be strangers there, ready to confess Him the true object of our soul’s devotion.
I believe we are all in danger of accumulating – it may be from thoughtlessness, or from pressure of occupation – things which would be useful to others, while not needed by ourselves, and the retention of which entails loss of blessing.
Union with Christ, and abiding in Christ, what do they not secure? Peace, perfect peace; rest, constant rest; answers to all our prayers; victory over all our foes; pure, holy living; ever-increasing fruitfulness. All, all of these are the glad outcome of abiding in Christ.
Wonderful thought! that God should desire fellowship with us; and that He whose love once made Him the Man of Sorrows may now be made the Man of Joys by the loving devotion of human hearts.
The consecration of all to our Master, far from lessening our power to impart, increases both our power and our joy in ministration. The five loaves and two fishes of the disciples, first given up to and blessed by the Lord, were abundant supply for the needy multitudes, and grew, in the act of distribution, into a store of which twelve hampers full of fragments remained when all were fully satisfied.
There is no change in His love; He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. To us He promises, “I will never leave thee, never fail thee, nor forsake thee”; and His earnest exhortation and command is, “Abide in Me, and I in you.
Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; Forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house; So shall the King desire thy beauty: For He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him.
There was no doubt that if faith did not fail, God would not fail; but, then, what if one’s faith should prove insufficient? I had not at that time learned that even “if we believe not, He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself”; and it was consequently a very serious question to my mind, not whether He was faithful, but whether I had strong enough faith to warrant my embarking in the enterprise set before me.
In this way I had more than two-thirds of my income available for other purposes; and my experience was that the less I spent on myself and the more I gave away, the fuller of happiness and blessing did my soul become. Unspeakable joy all the day long, and every day, was my happy experience. God, even my God, was a living, bright Reality; and all I had to do was joyful service.
It is always helpful to us to fix our attention on the God-ward aspect of Christian work; to realise that the work of God does not mean so much man’s work for God, as God’s own work through man.
God, even my God, was a living, bright Reality; and all I had to do was joyful service.
It was to me a very grave matter, however, to contemplate going out to China, far away from all human aid, there to depend upon the living God alone for protection, supplies, and help of every kind.
I found myself possessed of only a single coin – one half-crown piece. Still I had hitherto had no lack, and I continued in prayer.
Nothing humbles the soul like sacred and intimate communion with the LORD; yet there is a sweet joy in feeling that He knows all, and, notwithstanding, loves us still.