April

April 1st.

They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.—1 Timothy vi. 9.

""THINK of Balaam. He is generally regarded as a false prophet, but I do not find that any of his prophecies that are recorded are not true; they have been literally fulfilled. Up to a certain point his character shone magnificently, but the devil finally overcame him by the bait of covetousness. He stepped over a heavenly crown for the riches and honors that Balak promised him. He went to perdition backward. His face was set toward God, but he backed into hell. He wanted to die the death of the righteous, but he did not live the life of the righteous. It is sad to see so many who know God, miss everything for riches.

April 2d.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful andjust to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.—1 John i. 9.

""THERE may be some confessions we need to make to be brought into close fellowship with God. We must cooperate with God. You may take a bottle and cork it up tight, and put it under Niagara, and not a drop of that mighty volume of water will get into the bottle. If there is any sin in my heart that I am not willing to confess and to give up, I need not expect a blessing. The men who have had power with God in prayer have always begun by confessing their sins. Take the prayers of Jeremiah and Daniel. We find Daniel confessing his sin, when there isn't a single sin recorded against him.

April 3d.

Thou shalt not make unto Thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.—Exodus xx. 4.

I WOULD a great deal sooner have five minutes' communion with Christ than spend years before pictures and images of Him. Whatever comes between my soul and my Maker is not a help to me, but a hindrance. God has given different means of grace by which we can approach Him. Let us use these, and not seek for other things that He has distinctly forbidden.

April 4th.

Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.—Daniel vi. 5.

WHAT a testimony from his bitterest enemies! Would that it could be said of all of us! He had never taken a bribe, he had

never been connected with a "ring." Ah, how his name shines! He had commenced to shine in his early manhood, and he shone right along. Now he is an old man, an old statesman, and yet this is their testimony.

Character is worth more than money. Character is worth more than anything else in the wide world. I would rather in my old age have such a character as that which Daniel's enemies gave him than have raised over my dead body a monument of gold reaching from earth to sky.

April 5th.

And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.—2 Corinthians xii. 9.

\I7HEN we are weak then we are strong.

People often think they have not strength enough; the fact is we have too much strength. It is when we feel that we have no strength of our own, that we are willing God should use us, and work through us. If we are leaning on God's strength, we have more than all the strength of the world.

April 6th.

Having made peace through the blood of His cross. . . .—Colossians i. 2o.

A GREAT many people are trying to make

**■ their peace with God, but that has already been done. God has not left it for us to do; all that we have to do is to enter into it, to accept it. It is a condition, and instead of our trying to make peace and to work for peace, we want to cease all that, and simply enter into peace that has been purchased for us.

April 7th.

/ will be with him in trouble.—Psalm xci. 15. TT is a great thing to have a place of resort in * the time of trouble. How people get on without the God of the Bible is a mystery to me. If I didn't have such a refuge, a place to go and pour out my heart to God in such times, I don't know what I would do. It seems as if I would go out of my mind. But to think, when the heart is burdened, we can go and pour it into His ear, and then have the answer come back, "I will be with Him," there is comfort in that!

I thank God for the old Book. I thank God for this old promise. It is as sweet and fresh to-day as it has ever been. Thank God, none of those promises are out of date, or grown stale. They are as fresh and vigorous and young and sweet as ever.

April 8th.

In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.—John xiv. 2.

AIT HAT has been, and is now, one of the strongest feelings in the human heart? Is it not to find some better place, some lovelier spot, than we now have? It is for this that men everywhere are seeking, and they can have it if they will; but instead of looking down, they must look up to find it. As men grow in knowledge, they vie with each other more and more in making their homes attractive, but the brightest home on earth is but an empty barn compared with the mansions Jesus has gone to prepare.

April 9th.

/ will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.—Luke xv. 18.

/^NE of the greatest battles ever fought was being fought out then. Everything holy and heavenly was beckoning the prodigal home. The powers of darkness were trying to keep him from returning.

"You go back and they'll all laugh at you. What'll they say?" said the devil.

No doubt there was an angel hovering over him, watching for the decision, and when he said, " I will arise," the angel bore it on high.

"Make another crown. Get another robe ready. There's another sinner coming!"

That "I will" echoed and reechoed, and there was joy in the presence of the angels. He is saved. His heart has got home already. The battle with pride and sin is over.

For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.—Matthew xxiii. 39.

HEN Christ returns, He will not be

treated as He was before. There will be room for Him at Bethlehem. He will be welcome in Jerusalem. He will reveal Himself as Joseph revealed himself to his brethren. He will say to the Jews, "I am Jesus," and they will reply : "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." And the Jews will then be that nation that shall be born in a day.

Ye shall seek Me and find Me when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.—Jeremiah xxix. 13.

THESE are the men who find Christ—those

who seek for Him with all their heart. I am tired and sick of half-heartedness. You don't like a half-hearted man, you don't care for

April 10th.

April nth.

any one to love you with a half-heart; and the Lord won't have it. If we are going to seek for Him and find Him, we must do it with all our heart.

I believe the reason why so few people find Christ is because they are not terribly in earnest about their soul's salvation. God is in earnest; everything He has done proves that He is in earnest about the salvation of men's souls. What is Calvary but a proof of that? And the Lord wants us to be in earnest when it comes to this great question of the soul's salvation. I never saw men seeking Him with all their hearts but they soon found Him.

April 12th. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.— Matthew xxvi. 41.

""THE flesh is weak. Is there any one on earth that dares to dispute that statement? Is there anything weaker under the sun than the human flesh? The spirit is willing. Most men would rather do the right thing, and think they will do it. Tell them that they will do certain things inside of twelve months, and they would say, as the king did, "Is thy servant a dog that he should do such a thing? No, never." But they will do it just the same. ** The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." April 13th.

The Lord bless thee and keep thee.—Numbers vi. 24. '~> OD can do what He has done before. He

kept Joseph in Egypt; Moses before Pharaoh; Daniel in Babylon ; and enabled Elijah to stand before Ahab in that dark day. And I am so thankful that these I have mentioned were men of like passions with ourselves.

April 14th. He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life.—John v. 24.

A MAN once prayed for me that I might obtain eternal life at last. I could not have said "Amen" to that. I obtained eternal life over forty years ago, when I was converted. What is the "gift of God," if it is not eternal life? And what makes the gospel such good news? Is it not that it offers eternal life to every poor sinner who will take it?

April 15th.

Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire.—Daniel iii. 25.

TT does my heart good to think that the worst * the devil can do is to burn off the bonds of God's children. If Christ be with us, the worst afflictions can only loosen our earthly bonds, and set us free to soar higher.

April 16th. Prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband.— Revelation xxi. 2.

""THERE are constant sounds around us that we cannot hear, and the sky is studded with bright worlds that our eyes have never seen. Little as we know about this bright and radiant land, there are glimpses of its beauty that come to us now and then.

Perhaps nothing but the shortness of our range of sight keeps us from seeing the celestial gates all open to us, and nothing but the deafness of our ears prevents our hearing the joyful ringing of the bells of heaven.

April 17th.

He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, . . . shall not come into judgment.—John v. 24.

TN a prairie fire, when the wind is strong, the wall of flame often rolls along twenty feet high, destroying man and beast in its onward rush. The frontiersmen know they cannot run as fast as that fire. Not the fleetest horse can escape it. But they just take a match, and light the grass before them. These flames sweep a space, and men follow and take their stand in the burned district, and are safe. Over the place where they stand ;h~ fire has already passed, and there is nothing left to burn. So there is one spot on earth that the judgment of God has swept over. Eighteen hundred years ago the storm burst on Calvary; and the Son of God endured it: and now, if we take our stand by the Cross, we are safe for time and for eternity.

April 18th.

He made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.—Luke xix. 6.

FAID you ever hear of any one receiving Christ in any other way? He received Him joyfully. Christ brings joy with Him. Sin, gloom, and darkness flee away; light, peace, and joy burst into the soul.

April 19th. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.—Mark xvi. 15.

¥ CAN imagine Jesus saying: "Go search out A the man who put that crown of thorns on My brow; tell him I will have a crown for him in My kingdom, if he will accept salvation; and there shall not be a thorn in it. Find out that man who took the reed from My hand, and smote My head, driving the thorns deeper into My brow. Tell him I want to give him a sceptre. Go, seek out that poor soldier who drove the spear into My side; tell him that there is a nearer way to My heart than that. Tell him I want to make hl.»i a soldier of the Cross, and that My banner over him shall be love."

April 20th. / can do all things through Christ which strengthen th me.—Philippians iv. 13. ""TAKE Christ for your strength, dear soul.

He'll give you power. Power to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil; power to crucify every besetting sin, passion, lust; power to shout in triumph over every trouble and temptation of your life," I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

April 21st. One man of you shall chase a thousand.—Joshua xxiii. 10.

■\17HEN in Glasgow, a friend was telling me "* about a man who was preaching one Sabbath morning on Shamgar. He said: "I can imagine that when he was ploughing in the field a man came running over the hill all out of breath, and shouted: 'Shamgar! Shamgar! There are six hundred Philistines coming toward you.' Shamgar quietly said: 'You pass on; I can take care of them, they are four hundred short.' So he took an ox goad and slew the whole of them. He routed them hip and thigh." "One shall chase a thousand." Nowadays it takes about a thousand to chase one, because we do not realize that we are weak in ourselves and that pur strength is in God.

April 22d,

Exceeding great and precious promises.—2 Peter i. 4. f ET men feed for a month on the promises

of God and they will not be talking their "leanness." It is not leanness, it is laziness. There is an abundant supply for us if we will only rouse ourselves to take it.

April 23d. From darkness unto light.—Acts xxvi. 18. T REMEMBER one night when the Bible was *■ the driest and darkest book in the universe to me. The next day it was all light. I had the key to it. I had been born of the Spirit. But before I knew anything of the mind of God in His word I had to give up my sin.

A kingdom which shall never be destroyed.—Daniel

APOLEON tried to establish a kingdom by

A the force of arms. So did Alexander the Great, and Caesar, and other great warriors; but they utterly failed. Jesus founded His kingdom on love, and it is going to stand. When we get on to this plane of love, then all selfish and unworthy motives will disappear, and our work will stand the fire when God shall put it to the test.

April 24th.

April 25th.

And in every work that He began, He did it with His heart.—2 Chronicles xxxi. 21.

TN all ages God has used those who were in earnest. Satan always calls idle men into his service. God calls active and earnest—not indolent men. You remember where Elijah found Elisha ploughing in the field. Gideon was at the threshing floor. Moses was away in Horeb looking after the sheep. None of these were indolent men ; what they did, they did with all their might. We want such men and women nowadays. If we cannot do God's work with all the knowledge we would like, let us at any rate do it with all the zeal that God has given us.

April 26th.

For the zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up.— Psalm lxix. 9.

T HEARD of some one who was speaking the other day of something that was to be done, and who said he hoped zeal would be tempered with moderation. Another friend very wisely replied that he hoped moderation would be tempered with zeal. If that were always the case, Christianity would be like a red hot ball rolling over the face of the earth. There is no power on earth that can stand before the onward march of God's people when they are in dead earnest.

April 27th. / would thouwert cold or hot.—Revelation iii. 15. \\JHAT we want is to be red hot all the time.

Do not wait until some one hunts you up. People talk about striking while the iron is hot. I believe it was Cromwell who said that he would rather strike the iron and make it hot. So let us keep at our post, and we will soon grow warm in the Lord's work.

April 28th. He shall show you things to come.—John xvi. 13. DEOPLE talk about news nowadays. The Bible is the only news-book in the world. The newspaper tells us what has taken place, but this Book tells us what will take place. And for people to be shutting it up, and saying we can be guided without it, is just as reasonable as to shut out the sun by closing up our windows because we have the electric light. There is as much reason to say that the sun is worn out as to say that we have got beyond the Bible.

April 29th. // is written.—Matthew iv. 4, 7, 10. /TIRIST overcame Satan by the word. He ^* simply said: "It is written"; and a second time, and a third time, " It is written "; and that was the arrow that shot right into him and drove him away. The devil does not care a bit about our feelings. He can make our feelings good or bad; he can take us up on the mountain, or down into the valley, and we can only vanquish him by the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word.

April 30th. / knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, {whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell, God knowethf) such an one caught up to the third heaven.—2 Corinthians xii. 2. COME people have wondered what the third heaven means. That is where God dwells, and where the storms do not come. There sits the incorruptible Judge. Paul, when he was caught up there, heard things that it was not lawful for him to utter, and he saw things that he could not speak of down here. The higher up we get in spiritual matters, the nearer we seem to heaven. There our wishes are fulfilled at last.