Counting the Cost

"I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord" (Phil. 3:8).

This is the happy season of ripening cornfields, of the merry song of the reapers, of the secured and garnered grain. But let me hearken to the sermon of the field. This is its solemn word to me. You must die in order to live. You must refuse to consult your own case and well-being. You must be crucified, not only in desires and habits which are sinful, but in many more which appear innocent and right.

If you would save others, you cannot save yourself. If you would bear much fruit, you must be buried in darkness and solitude.

My heart fails me as I listen. But, when Jesus asks it, let me tell myself that it is my high dignity to enter into the fellowship of His sufferings; and thus I am in the best of company. And let me tell myself again that it is all meant to make me a vessel meet for His use. His own Calvary has blossomed into fertility; and so shall mine. Plenty out of pain, life out of death: is it not the law of the Kingdom? --In the Hour of Silence

Do we call it dying when the bud bursts into flower? --Selected

A SONG OF LOVE

"But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."¡X1 Cor. xiii. 13.

This chapter is wholly devoted to the praise of love. The first three verses speak of the absolute necessity of love, as the chief thing in our religion. "If I speak with the tongues of angels, if I have the gift of prophecy, if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, and if I bestow all my goods on the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love"; then, three times repeated, "I am become sounding brass, I am nothing, it profiteth me nothing." If I have not love, it all profiteth me nothing.

Then follows the Song of Love (vs. 4-8). There are fifteen things said about love¡Xwhat it is and what it is not. In this description one sentence sums up the whole nature of love: "It seeketh not its own." And again: "Love never faileth." Proph¬ecies, tongues, and knowledge shall vanish away. Even faith and hope shall be changed into sight. But Love abides to all eternity, as long as God endures. Love is the greatest thing in the world.

We should read this chapter oftener than we do, and commit the Song to memory; so that the great words are imprinted on our hearts: "Love seeketh not her own." Think over it and pray over it. "Love never faileth." Consider all that means. "The greatest of these is love." Let this love rule in your life.

God is love. "He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." O Christian, are you living in a world that is uncharitable and selfish, or full of bitterness and hatred? Take refuge under the wings of this everlasting love. Let your heart be filled with it, so that by God's almighty power you may be a witness to the transforming power of love. Thus you will be a fountain of blessing to all around you.

Live each day in fellowship with the triune love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and you will learn the secret of how to love.

Let Trials Bless

"Knowing that tribulation worketh patience"(Romans 5:3).

This is a promise in essence if not in form. We have need of patience, and here we see the way of getting it. It is only by enduring that we learn to endure, even as by swimming men learn to swim. You could not learn that art on dry land, nor learn patience without trouble. Is it not worth while to suffer tribulation for the sake of gaining that beautiful equanimity of mind which quietly acquiesces in all the will of God?

Yet our text sets forth a singular fact, which is not according to nature but is supernatural. Tribulation in and of itself worketh petulance, unbelief, and rebellion. It is only by the sacred alchemy of grace that it is made to work in us patience. We do not thresh the wheat to lay the dust: yet the flail of tribulation does this upon God's floor. We do not toss a man about in order to give him rest, and yet so the LORD dealeth with His children. Truly this is not the manner of man but greatly redounds to the glory of our all-wise God.

Oh, for grace to let my trials bless me! Why should I wish to stay their gracious operation? LORD, I ask Thee to remove my affliction, but I beseech Thee ten times more to remove my impatience. Precious LORD Jesus, with Thy cross engrave the image of Thy patience on my heart.

Morning, September 21

¡§I will rejoice over them to do them good.¡¨(Jeremiah 32:41)

How heart-cheering to the believer is the delight which God has in his saints! We cannot see any reason in ourselves why the Lord should take pleasure in us; we cannot take delight in ourselves, for we often have to groan, being burdened; conscious of our sinfulness, and deploring our unfaithfulness; and we fear that God's people cannot take much delight in us, for they must perceive so much of our imperfections and our follies, that they may rather lament our infirmities than admire our graces. But we love to dwell upon this transcendent truth, this glorious mystery: that as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so does the Lord rejoice over us. We do not read anywhere that God delighteth in the cloud-capped mountains, or the sparkling stars, but we do read that he delighteth in the habitable parts of the earth, and that his delights are with the sons of men. We do not find it written that even angels give his soul delight; nor doth he say, concerning cherubim and seraphim, ¡§Thou shalt be called Hephzibah, for the Lord delighteth in thee¡¨; but he does say all that to poor fallen creatures like ourselves, debased and depraved by sin, but saved, exalted, and glorified by his grace. In what strong language he expresses his delight in his people! Who could have conceived of the eternal One as bursting forth into a song? Yet it is written, ¡§He will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.¡¨ As he looked upon the world he had made, he said, ¡§It is very good¡¨; but when he beheld those who are the purchase of Jesus¡¦ blood, his own chosen ones, it seemed as if the great heart of the Infinite could restrain itself no longer, but overflowed in divine exclamations of joy. Should not we utter our grateful response to such a marvellous declaration of his love, and sing, ¡§I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation?¡¨

Evening, September 21

¡§Gather not my soul with sinners.¡¨(Psalm 26:9)

Fear made David pray thus, for something whispered, ¡§Perhaps, after all, thou mayst be gathered with the wicked.¡¨ That fear, although marred by unbelief, springs, in the main, from holy anxiety, arising from the recollection of past sin. Even the pardoned man will enquire, ¡§What if at the end my sins should be remembered, and I should be left out of the catalogue of the saved?¡¨ He recollects his present unfruitfulness¡Xso little grace, so little love, so little holiness, and looking forward to the future, he considers his weakness and the many temptations which beset him, and he fears that he may fall, and become a prey to the enemy. A sense of sin and present evil, and his prevailing corruptions, compel him to pray, in fear and trembling, ¡§Gather not my soul with sinners.¡¨ Reader, if you have prayed this prayer, and if your character be rightly described in the Psalm from which it is taken, you need not be afraid that you shall be gathered with sinners. Have you the two virtues which David had¡Xthe outward walking in integrity, and the inward trusting in the Lord? Are you resting upon Christ's sacrifice, and can you compass the altar of God with humble hope? If so, rest assured, with the wicked you never shall be gathered, for that calamity is impossible. The gathering at the judgment is like to like. ¡§Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.¡¨ If, then, thou art like God's people, thou shalt be with God's people. You cannot be gathered with the wicked, for you are too dearly bought. Redeemed by the blood of Christ, you are his for ever, and where he is, there must his people be. You are loved too much to be cast away with reprobates. Shall one dear to Christ perish? Impossible! Hell cannot hold thee! Heaven claims thee! Trust in thy Surety and fear not!