Come Ye Apart: Daily Exercises in Prayer and Devotion

My presence shall go with Thee, and I shall give Thee rest.

—Exodus 33: 14.

Where is my road going to lead? Will it be green lane or stony steep? Will it be clear and legible as a turnpike, or faint and doubtful like an uneertaiti track across the moor? I do not know. But our text entwines the gracious offer of a great Companion for the unknown and changing road. It promises the destruction of loneliness but not the dispersal of the mist.

My Father God, Thy Presence makes everywhere a royal road. Thy companionship always leads to the Holy City. Every day’s journey is a day’s march nearer home. Help me to trust and not be afraid. For Christ’s sake. Amen.

January 2.

AND you, “being dead in your sins... hath He quickened together with Christ.

—CoLOSSiANS 2: 13.

This is the resurrection of the soul. It is her spiritual spring-time. The Lord Jesus visits us in our deadness, and lo, the winter is over, and God makes the flowers appear on the earth, and the time of the singing of birds has come.

Heavenly Father, I pray that I may rise in Christ Jesus into newness of life. If I am already risen let me rise into loftier glory. Give me an eager spirit which will not rest until I awake in the likeness of Christ. For His sake. Amen.

January 3*

STAND. ». having your loins girt about with truth.

—Ephesians 6: 14.

It is truth that Is like the girdle that binds the loose energies into compact strength. Without truth we are all at sixes and sevens. Without truth everything is lax and indecisive. Truth binds us into unity and makes us masters of our task.

Holy Father, may my life be girt about with Thy truth. Let not my life be broken up by untruth and spiritual indolence. Gather my energies into obedience to Thy holy will. Let all that is within me bless Thy holy name. For Christ’s sake. Amen.

Sanuars 4.

GROW in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

—2 Peter 3: 18.

Were we to live on our yesterdays our growth would be arrested. We cannot live on yesterday’s manna; we are to gather fresh bread to-day. There is a perilous contentment which is the harbinger of death. When we cease to grow we begin to deelina Our safety is in increase.

0 Lord my God, make me wise unto salvatton. Save me from being drugged by my attainments. Let not the little which I know send my soul asleep. Keep me awake, and active, and progressive, and let me put on strength from day to day. For the Saviour’s sake. Amen.

January 5.

THIS hind goeth not out hut by prayer and fasting. — Matthew 17: 21.

There are some things which cannot be done except as a result of the sternest spiritual discipline. If we are to do marvellous things we must be marvellously open to the incoming of God. And prayer and fasting are two of the appointed means of grace. Fasting covers everything that detaches the soul from the world. Prayer covers everything that attaches the soul to God.

My Father in Heaven, I pray that I may have this detachment from the world and this attachment to Thee. Mercifully grant that by discipline of body and soul I may be open to the energies of Thy grace. Graciously do Thy work in me this day. For Christ’s sake. Amen.

Sanuars 6.

I HAVE chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. — John 15: 16.

It is a wonderful thought that God has thought upon me. He has a plan for my life. I am not like some drifting boat on the high seas without compass or chart. My way is appointed and my end rests in the holy grace of the Lord.

0 Lord my God, give me this assurance that I have a place in Thy purpose. Let me meet Thy will moment by moment. Let me complete my journey through fidelity to the immediate task. Let me consecrate the present moment and so hallow the entire year. For Christ’s sake. Amen.

January 7.

IF any man will do His will, he sJiall know the teaching, whether it be of God.

—John 7: 17.

The only way in which to know truth is by transmitting it into life. We never know it until we incarnate it in flesh and blood. No one can know what the atonement is except through personal sacrifice. Such things are not known as abstractions. They have to be lived, and then we recognize the word of the Lord. Through life we pass to understanding.

Most Gracious God, may I come to know Thy truth along the path of hallowed life. My discoveries are made on roads of obedience. Thy lamps shine for the dutiful. Guide me in Thy truth and teach me. For Christ’s sake. Amen.

January 8.

EAVINO begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect in the flesh?

—Galatians 3: 3.

We sometimes begin a journey with God, but we do not continue in His companionship. “We sometimes have spiritual impulses but we pass to carnal constraints. Many an institution has been born in a spiritual revival and has then tried to exist on merely mechanical means. What began as spirit has ended in a form.

Most Holy God, save me from the peril of deserting the springs. Let me not lose Thy spiritual inspirations. Let me not be lured into the weakness of the letter. Help me to live in ceaseless dependence upon the fountains of eternal life. May I gather all my water from the hills of God. For my Saviour ’s sake. Amen.

January 9,

THE weapons of our warfare are not carnal, hut mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.

—2 Corinthians 10: 4.

We are to believe in spiritual power more than in material power. We are to believe that nothing can finally resist

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the offensive of the divine Spirit. A divine word has infinitely more dynamic than a carnal work. Prayer is our most vital action.

Most Almighty God, I pray that I may believe in the things of the Spirit. May I not be daunted by the threat of material hostility. Help me to believe that he who shares the Spirit of God is mightier than all the material forces on the planet. In that happy confidence let me face my life to-day. Through Christ’s sake. Amen.

January 10.

AND he not conformed to this world, hut he ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.

—EOMAKS 12: 2.

Instead! of being moulded to this world by its external constraints, let us be renewed in thought and purpose, and so become transformed in the secret places of our life. There is a heaven of difference between worldly conformation and spiritual transformation.

My Father God, Thy spirit cam renew my life. Thy holy power can change all my springs. Let the fountains of impulse and desire be like unto the life of my Saviour. Let Christ dwell in me richly. For His sake. Amen.

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