Food for the Desert: Abridged

It is not in gliding along the surface of a tranquil lake, that the reality of the Master’s presence is felt; but actually when the tempest roars, and the waves roll over the ship.

God's Presence: 3

The Lord does not holdout to us the prospect of exemption from trial and tribulation; quite the opposite. He tells us we shall have to meet both the one and the other; but He promises to be with us in them, and this is infinitely better.

God's Presence: 4

God’s presence in the trial is much better than exemption from the trial. The sympathy of His heart with us is sweeter far than the power of His hand for us. The Master’s presence with His faithful servants, while passing through the furnace, was better far than the display of His power to keep them out of it (Dan. 3).

God's Presence: 5

We would frequently desire to be allowed to pass on our way without trial, but this would involve serious loss. The Lord’s presence is never so sweet as in moments of appalling difficulty.

God's Presence: 6

It is when the people of God are brought into the greatest straits and difficulties, that they are favored with the finest displays of God’s character and acting; and for this reason, He often leads them into a trying position, in order that He may the more markedly show Himself.

God's Presence: 7

When a cloud comes between us and the sun, it robs us for the time of the enjoyment of his beams. It does not prevent him from shining, it merely hinders our enjoyment of him. Exactly so is it when we allow trials and sorrows, difficulties and perplexities, to hide from our souls the bright beams of our Father’s countenance, which ever shine, with changeless luster, in the face of Jesus Christ.

God's Presence: 9

There is no difficulty too great for our God; yea, the greater the difficulty, the more room there is for Him to act in His proper character, as the God of all power and grace.

God's Presence: 10

Unbelief creates or magnifies difficulties, and then sets us about removing them by our own bustling and fruitless activities, which in reality do but raise a dust around us, which prevents our seeing God’s salvation.

God's Presence: 11

When unbelief is driven from the scene, then God can enter; and, in order to get a proper view of his acting, we must stand still.

God's Presence: 12

No one would think of bringing a lighted candle to add brightness to the sun at midday; and yet the man who would do so might well be accounted wise, in comparison with him who attempts to assist God by his bustling officiousness.

God's Presence: 13

God never gives guidance for two steps at a time. I must take one step, and then I get light for the next.

God's Presence: 14

If the eye, instead of resting on our sins and sorrows, could rest only on Christ, it would sweeten many a bitter cup, and enlighten many a gloomy hour.

God's Presence: 15

One finds constantly that nine-tenths of our trials and sorrows are made up of anticipated or imaginary evils, which only exist in our own disordered, because unbelieving, minds.

God's Presence: 16

We can never sing with real spiritual intelligence and power when we are looking at ourselves.

God's Presence: 17

Are there any doubts or fears in the holiest?

God's Presence: 18

That very heat that removes the fair traces of spring, produces the mellowed and matured fruits of autumn. Thus it is also in the Christian life.

God's Presence: 19

It is only when man puts himself under law that he forfeits everything; for then God must allow him to prove how much he can claim on the ground of his own works.

God's Presence: 20

There is nothing in which we so signally fail as in the cultivation of a confiding and thankful spirit.

God's Presence: 21

Ten thousand mercies are forgotten in the presence of a trifling privation.

God's Presence: 22

Our path through the desert is strewed with countless mercies; and yet let but a cloud the size of a man’s hand appear on the horizon, and we at once forget the rich mercies of the past in view of this single cloud, which after all may only “break in blessing on our head.”

God's Work, Not Man's: 1

There is nothing real, nothing solid, nothing satisfying, but in Christ.

God's Work, Not Man's: 2

Either Christ’s atoning sacrifice is sufficient, or it is not; if it is sufficient, why those doubts and fears?

God's Work, Not Man's: 3

The words of our lips profess that the work is finished, but the doubts and fears of the heart declare that it is not. Everyone who doubts his full and everlasting forgiveness, denies, so far as he is concerned, the completeness of the sacrifice of Christ.

God's Work, Not Man's: 4

We are apt to regard the fruits of the Spirit in us, rather than the work of Christ for us, as the foundation of peace.

God's Work, Not Man's: 5

The Holy Ghost is the only gatherer; Christ Himself is the only object to which we are gathered; and our assembly, when thus convened, is to be characterized by holiness, so that the Lord our God may dwell among us. The Holy Ghost can only gather to Christ. He cannot gather to a system, a name, a doctrine, or an ordinance. He gathers to a Person, and that Person is a glorified Christ in heaven.

God's Work, Not Man's: 6

We are not merely under the eternal shelter of the blood of the Lamb, but we feed, by faith, upon the Person of the Lamb. We are apt to rest satisfied with being saved by what Christ has done for us, without cultivating holy communion with Himself. His loving heart could never be satisfied with this.

God's Work, Not Man's: 7

Grace not only saves the soul with an everlasting salvation, but also imparts a nature which delights in everything that belongs to God.

God's Work, Not Man's: 8

To have my heart unlocked anywhere save in the presence of infinite grace’ would plunge me in hopeless despair. The heart of man is but a little hell. What boundless mercy, then, to be delivered from its terrible depths!

Give up the World: 1

It is much better to be drawn by the joys of heaven, than driven by the sorrows of earth.

Give up the World: 2

The believer should not wait to be shaken out of present things.

Give up the World: 3

He should not wait for the world to give him up before he gives up the world.

Give up the World: 4

He should give it up in the power of communion with heavenly things.

Give up the World: 5

There is no difficulty in giving up the world when we have, by faith, laid hold of Christ; the difficulty would then be to hold it.

Give up the World: 6

If a scavenger were left an estate of ten thousand a year, he would not long continue to sweep the streets.

Give up the World: 7

Instead of refreshing the Lord, Lot gets his righteous soul vexed; instead of enjoying communion with the Lord, he is at a lamentable distance from the Lord; and lastly, instead of interceding for others, he finds enough to do to intercede for himself.

Give up the World: 8

The Lord remained to commune with Abraham, and merely sent His angels to Sodom.

Give up the World: 9

It is a bitter thing to seek, in any wise, to manage for ourselves; we are sure to make the most grievous mistakes.

Give up the World: 10

We cannot profit by the world, and, at the same time, bear effectual testimony against its wickedness.

Give up the World: 11

It is vain to speak of approaching judgment, while finding our place, our portion, and our enjoyment in the very scene which is to be judged.

Sent of God: 1

When one is not really walking with a single eye and purified affections, he will easily find a stone to stumble over. If he does not find it at one time, he will at another. If he does not find it here, he will find it there.

Sent of God: 2

The man of faith can easily afford to allow the man of sight to take his choice.

Sent of God: 3

Faith lays up its treasure in a place which nature would never dream of examining.

Sent of God: 4

Men who run unsent, break down, in one way or another, and find their way back to that which they professed to have left.

Sent of God: 5

Many a vessel has sailed out of harbor, in gallant style, with all its canvas spread, amid cheering and shouting, and with many fair promises of a first-rate passage; but alas! storms, waves, shoals, rocks, and quicksands have changed the aspect of things; and the voyage that started with hope, has ended in disaster.

Sent of God: 6

If we run unsent, we shall not only be left to learn our folly, but to exhibit it.

Sent of God: 7

When Abraham tarried at Charran, God waited for him; when he went down into Egypt, He restored him; when he needed guidance, He guided him; when there was a strife and a separation, He took care of him.

Sent of God: 8

The heart is very treacherous; and it is often truly astonishing to see how it deceives us when we desire to gain some special point.

Sent of God: 9

How frequently do we hear persons defending a continuance in a position which they admit to be wrong, on the plea that they thereby enjoy a wider sphere of usefulness!

Sent of God: 10

The most effectual way to serve the world is to be faithful to it, by separating from, and testifying against it.

Confidence in God: 1

It is one thing to rest in God’s blessings, and another thing to rest in Himself.

Confidence in God: 2

It is one thing to trust God, when I have before my eyes the channel through which the blessing is to flow; and quite another thing to trust Him when that channel is entirely stopped up.

Confidence in God: 3

God looks for reality, and honors it where He sees it.

Confidence in God: 4

Without trial we can be but theorists, and God would not have us such; He would have us entering into the living depths that are in Himself.

Confidence in God: 5

Faith can do without everyone and everything but God.

Confidence in God: 6

Where Satan ends, God begins.

Confidence in God: 7

The most spiritual teaching will ever be characterized by a full and constant presentation of Christ. He will ever form the burden of such teaching. The Spirit cannot dwell on anything but Jesus. Of Him He delights to speak. He delights in setting forth His attractions and excellencies. When a man is ministering by the power of the Spirit of God, there will always be more of Christ than anything else in his ministry. The Spirit’s sole object—be it well remembered by all who minister—will ever be to set forth Christ.

Confidence in God: 8

So long as we continue in a low position, we are robbing ourselves of blessing, and failing totally in our testimony and service.

Confidence in God: 9

It is so exceedingly sweet to find ourselves wholly dependent upon One who finds infinite joy in blessing us.

Confidence in God: 10

Praying and planning will never do together. If I plan, I am leaning more or less on my plan; but when I pray, I should lean exclusively upon God.

Confidence in God: 11

We often feel very well satisfied with ourselves when we add prayer to our arrangement, or when we have used all lawful means, and called upon God to bless them. When this is the case, our prayers are worth about as much as our plans.

Confidence in God: 12

We can never get to the end of our plans until we have been brought to the end of ourselves.

Divine Service: 1

When God educates, He educates in a manner worthy of Himself and His most holy service. He will not have a novice to do His work. The servant of Christ has to learn many a lesson, to undergo many an exercise, to pass through many a conflict, in secret, ere he is really qualified to act in public.

Divine Service: 2

Moses “looked this way and that way.” There is no need of this when a man is acting with and for God.

Divine Service: 3

Whenever we look around to shun a mortal’s frown or catch his smile, we may rest assured there is something wrong; we are off the proper ground of divine service.

Divine Service: 4

No man is in a position to serve others who is not wholly independent of them.

Divine Service: 5

Even a Moses “feared,” and a Paul “repented;” but the Lord Jesus never did either. He never had to retrace a step, to recall a word, or correct a thought.

Divine Service: 6

Jonah might have deemed it a very remarkable opening of Providence to find a ship going to Tarshish; but in truth it was an opening through which he slipped off the path of obedience.

Divine Service: 7

Obadiah took care of God’s witnesses, but Elijah was a witness for God. Darius was so attached to Daniel that he lost a night’s rest on his account; but Daniel spent that selfsame night in the lion’s den, as a witness for the truth of God. Nicodemus ventured to speak a word for Christ, but a more matured discipleship would have led him to identify himself with Christ.

Divine Service: 8

The Lord Jesus does not want patronage; He wants fellowship.

Divine Service: 9

He identified Himself with us, at the heavy cost of all that love could give.

Divine Service: 10

God has had all His servants very much alone with Himself, both before and after their entrance upon their public work; nor will any one ever get on without this. The absence of secret training and discipline will, necessarily, leave us barren, superficial, and theoretic. A man who ventures forth upon a public career, ere he has duly weighed himself in the balances of the sanctuary, or measured himself in the presence of God, is like a ship putting out to sea without proper ballast; he will doubtless overset with the first stiff breeze.

Divine Service: 11

A man who is always doing will be apt to do too much.

Divine Service: 12

In order to act for God outside, I should be with Him inside.

Divine Service: 13

If I allow my work to get between my heart and the Master, it will be little worth. We can only effectually serve Christ as we are enjoying Him, nor is there anyone who can minister Christ with unction, freshness, and power to others, if he be not feeding upon Christ in the secret of his own soul.

Divine Service: 14

The man who will present Christ to others must be occupied with Christ for Himself.

Divine Service: 15

The man who is merely feeding upon the fruits of his ministry, who delights in the gratification which it affords, or the attention and interest which it commands, is like a mere pipe conveying waters to others and retaining only rust itself.

Divine Service: 16

There is a vast difference between God sending a man, and a man running unsent. But it is very manifest that Moses was not ripe for service when first he set about acting.

Divine Service: 17

God takes up the weakest instruments to accomplish His mightiest ends.

Divine Service: 18

Nothing is more dishonoring to God or more dangerous to us than a mock humility.

Divine Service: 19

If, when God speaks, I refuse to believe, on the ground of something in myself, I make Him a liar (1 John 5:10).

Divine Service: 20

We move along with bold decision, when we possess the countenance and support of a poor frail mortal like ourselves; but we falter, hesitate, and demur, when we have the light of the Master’s countenance to cheer us, and the strength of His omnipotent arm to support us.

Divine Service: 21

If our personal acquaintance with God, and our experience of His presence, be not such as to enable us, if needful, to walk alone, we shall find the presence of a brother of very little use.

Divine Service: 22

It frequently happens that the very person whose presence we deem essential to our progress and success, afterward proves a source of deepest sorrow to our hearts.

Divine Service: 23

It is no light matter to be the Lord’s servant. No ordinary education will qualify a man for such a position. Nature must be put in the place of death and kept there.

Divine Service: 24

Be it remembered that the man who will speak, on God’s behalf, of death and judgment, life and salvation, must, ere he does so, enter into the practical power of these things in his own soul.

Divine Service: 25

The sentence of death must be written on nature: and if we seek to avoid it in one way, we shall have to encounter it in another.

Divine Service: 26

Let each one who stands up to preach, or teach, or exhort, or serve in any way, seriously inquire if indeed he be fitted, and taught, and sent of God. If not, his work will neither be owned of God nor blessed to men, and the sooner he ceases the better for himself and for those upon whom he has been imposing the heavy burden of hearkening to him.

Divine Service: 27

Neither a humanly-appointed, nor a self-appointed ministry will ever suit within the hallowed precincts of the Church of God. All must be divinely gifted, divinely taught, and divinely sent.

Divine Service: 28

Forty years of wilderness life are sure to make grave changes in men and things.

Divine Service: 29

God gives wisdom; but it is not a wisdom which locks the heart against all the appeals of human need and misery. He gives a knowledge of nature, but it is not a knowledge which causes us to grasp with a selfish eagerness that which we falsely call “our own.” He gives experience, but it is not an experience which results in suspecting everybody except myself.

Divine Service: 30

The springs which move me, and the objects which animate me, are all above, where He is, who is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”

Divine Service: 31

The messenger of God should ever remember whose message he bears.

Coming Glory: 1

He that is our resurrection life, He searches the dust of the earth, and all those who sleep through Him in the earth. (Buried no matter where or in what time: no matter what puny spite had shown itself in the deaths to which they are subjected.) The dead rise first, blessed without question. Blessed for Stephen; blessed for Paul: blessed for Peter, and others; but oh, what will the heart find of blessing in thinking of those names we are among, the worthies of the New Testament, compared with the blessedness of that one man, who, coming forth from God, will sweep with His power through the grave, and bring up all that sleep through Jesus, and in resurrection bodies, like the Lord! There is no power in us to mount up. We are caught up in a moment to meet the Lord in the air. He fills us up with life.

Coming Glory: 2

Those who are waiting for Him, the living ones who remain unto the coming of the Lord, are caught up with those that slept, together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And he adds, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words,” referring to the sorrow in the hearts of some who had not their hearts centered in that heart of Christ. Let me appeal to your souls individually, What do you think of Christ? What is that day to you? What is the Lord to you?

Coming Glory: 3

Oh what a tale will steal out in that day, when we see what the Lord’s love has been to us! I know His distinct love to me. I know His determination, but nothing but His blood shall be known as the atonement for my sin, His determination that no false prop shall suit me. I know His arm as an arm that may be leaned upon. And well He knows now in the days of His solitude, His service, His sorrow down here, His Father’s love was enough for Him, and He knows how His own individual love for the child of God is enough for the path, were it multiplied with sorrows ten thousand times more.

Coming Glory: 4

The children of God have a great deal too much looked at outward service, and not at the life they have.

Coming Glory: 5

Having loved us, having washed us from our sins in His own blood, He is coming to receive us to Himself. Some who turn to Him in their trials, their difficulties, their temptations, their sorrows, their joys; one quite understands how the coming of the Son from heaven does not move their hearts.

Coming Glory: 6

Oh the power that gives the individual believer the freshness of that hope, just flows from the knowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One living in heaven, who knows us, whom we know, and who is coming back to give us the blessed taste of being forever with Himself in the Father’s house.

Coming Glory: 7

All the need down here, the groans that go up to God, all are precious to Him, and the counterpart of them will be found in that day when we come to the glory.

Coming Glory: 8

Many a heart Christ has dealt with, many a soul He has comforted and strengthened, will almost selfishly say, “I long to be out of this scene, I long to be where all sorrow will be over.” No, I long for the hour to come when I shall behold Himself in His glory that day.

Coming Glory: 9

What has He been to you, this Christ, this Son of God, this Savior? Do you know Him individually? Have you no character to give Him? Have you no thoughts you could express from that which you have known about Him? What do you know about Him? He is no dead Christ. He that brings a poor sinner off the wild common of nature into the flock of God: what do you know of Him? Have you no cause to cleave to Him? Have you no want of Him? Have you no good thought about the love He bears to you, about that heart of His? Have you no calculations upon Him, that as He has delivered so He will? Have you no thoughts about that gracious preparation of all and each of His people by Himself for that day? Would you like your work to turn up there and find the counterpart of it in His presence, at His coming? Each of us has work as an individual. What is the other side of the medal? Will it shine when Christ comes? Can you connect gladly His coming with it and your being there in glory with Him? You will find the counterpart of that glory in works down here.

Coming Glory: 10

Jesus died; therefore it could be no strange thing to a believer to find himself, in the power of resurrection, called to pass over that bit of road which Christ trod.