BLI NDNESS.

1 Timothy 6:20  "Keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called."

—Godless science, says Coley, reads Nature only as Milton's daughters did Hebrew—rightly syllabling the sentences, but utterly ignprant of the meaning. Said Douglas Jerrold, "I knew a man who could speak five-and-twenty languages, and he never said anything worth hearing in any of them." So, until the moral nature is open to truth, a man is blind to the real beauty and significance of the facts acquired.

 DAILY READINGS IN LIFE OF CHRIST - J.R. Miller (1890)

February 5. Heavenly Guidance

"And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.." Matthew 2:13

All our movements should be under the direction of God. In very olden times, God guided his people by a pillar of fire and cloud, which lifted and moved when they were to move, showing them the way, and which rested and settled down when they were to halt. In these days of so much fuller revelation, there is no need for any such visible token of guidance, yet the guidance is no less real and no less unmistakable.

It was an angel that brought the command to Joseph, to flee into Egypt. Angels do not now appear to our eyes; but who will say that they do not whisper in our ears many a suggestion which we suppose to come from our own hearts? At least we know that in some way God will always tell us what to do; and if only we have ears to hear — we shall never fail of guidance. We should always wait for God's bidding — before taking any step. Especially in times of danger, when we are moving under His guidance, should we wait and not move until He brings us word.

It ought to give us great comfort and a wonderful sense of safety — to know that God is caring for us so faithfully. Some people laugh at the simple faith of child-like Christians, and say that it is all imagination, that there is no one in Heaven taking care of us. But we need not be worried by such skeptical ones. There is a God in Heaven — and He is our Father! He never sleeps. He has charge of all the affairs of this universe, and is always "at the helm." This should give us all confidence. Our whole duty — is to be always ready to obey. Whenever the voice comes bidding us arise and depart, there is some reason for it, and we should not hesitate to obey. Wherever we are sent — we should quietly stay until again God sends to call us away. The place of duty — is always the place of safety; and we should never move — until God brings us word.

Blind Bartemaeus

REMOVE NOT THE ANCIENT LANDMARK   (PASCHE, DAILY BBEAD.)

 It Stood the Severest Tests and All the Storms of Time.

"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Luke 21:33.

The Bible cannot be destroyed; it is God’s Book. For twenty centuries a terrific warfare has been waged against it, but all in vain. It stands today as unshaken as it did thousands of years before. It has stood the severest tests, throughout which it has been gloriously confirmed. It has been attested by countless miracles and signs, the reality of which even the most rabid enemies have been forced to admit. It has been attested by millions of martyrs, who have cheerfully sealed their faith with their blood, being divinely persuaded of the truth of the Scriptures. It has been attested by its miraculous preservation up to this hour despite all efforts of the wise and mighty to banish it from the face of the earth.

Through the first three centuries of the Christian era the devil summoned up all his wit and ingenuity to do away with this Book, but failed. Edicts were issued by powerful emperors to burn all the Scriptures in order to root out Christianity, but in vain. Orders were issued to burn the Christians because they honored the Bible and thus to uproot the Christian religion, but without avail. The military and the political powers of the Old World made war upon it, but all in vain. Then, under the Pope, the people were forbidden to read the Bible; everything was tried to discredit the Bible’s teaching or to suppress it; nevertheless it stands unscathed and has been spread among well-nigh all known tongues of the globe, everywhere performing its glorious mission. Years ago a school of criticism arose which taught and still teaches: This and that in the Bible is not true. This new “learning” is now being peddled in most of our American universities, — but the Bible still stands. A book that has successfully withstood so many centuries of the devil’s heaviest artillery is not going down before the air-guns of modern criticism. For heaven and earth shall pass away, but the Lord’s words shall not pass away.

Prayer.

Lord God, heavenly Father, we pray Thee so to govern and guide us by Thy Holy Spirit that we may with all our heart hear and receive Thy Word and amend our lives in accordance with it. Grant, we beseech Thee, that the enemies of Thy sacred Word may learn to see the error of their way, consider well the punishment now and hereafter in store for them, and turn to Thee in true penitence, so that they may, by Thy grace in Christ, be saved with us forever; through the same Thy Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

 QUIETNESS —Preachers Cabinet

"They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven." 

Psalms 107:27-30

Bishop Burnet says that a terrific storm occurred in 1666, at a period when the end of the world was expected. Sir Matthew Hale sat on the bench. The light- nings dazzled the eye and the thunders crashed with appalling power. The assembly was panic-stricken, and cried out that the day of judgment had begun. 

Some men b took themselves to prayers and all were filled with horror. The judge was quiet and unmoved. He calmly ordered that the business of the court proceed in the ordinary manner. Even if the end of all things were at hand, of which there was no evidence, he wished to be found diligently attending to his daily business.

The child of God, says Bowman, should live above the world, while moving through it, as some quiet star that sails through the tranquil sky, clear and serene, undisturbed in its heavenly heights.

 DAILY READINGS IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST - J.R. Miller 

THE WINE OF EARTHLY LIFE

February 4. When Earth's Wine Runs Out!

" And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine." John 2:3

This incident is a very fitting illustration of the failure of all this world's joys. The wine ran out at a wedding-feast. There was not enough of it to last through to the end of the feast.

It is just so with all earth's pleasures. It comes in cups — not in fountains; and the supply is limited — and soon exhausted.

It is so especially with sin's pleasures. The prodigal soon ran out of money, and began to be in need. A poet compared the pleasures of sin to a snowflake on the river, "a moment white — then gone forever!"

But it is true in a sense also — of pure earthly pleasures. Even the sweetness of human love is but a cupful, which will not last forever. The joy which so fills us today — tomorrow is changed to sorrow. Amid the gladness of the marriage altar — there is the knell of the end, in the words "until death do us part." One of every two friends must hold the other's hand in farewell at the edge of the valley of the shadow of death — and must stand by the other's grave, and walk alone for part of the way. The best wine of earthly life and of love — will fail. If there were nothing better in this world — how sad it would be!

But it is here that we see the glory of Christ's gospel. When earth's wine fails — Jesus comes, and gives Heaven's wine to supply the lack. How beautiful and how true is the picture here: the failing wine — and then Jesus coming with power and supplying the need! That is what He is doing continually. He takes lives which have drained their last drop of earthly gladness — and He satisfies them with spiritual good and blessing, so that they need nothing more.

When human joy fails — Jesus gives new joy, better than the world's, and in unfailing abundance! How sad it is for those who have not taken Christ into their lives, and who have nothing but the empty cup — when earth's wine runs out!