Take Thou my cup, and it With joy or sorrow fill! My sickness or my health; Not mine-not mine the choice, Anon. CHAPTER XVIII. (Eighteenth Meeting.) CHRISTIAN HOPE. THERE are few but know the encouraging influence of hope in regard to this world. It animates the warrior on the battlefield, the mariner in the storm, the traveller in his journey, the tradesman in his business, the criminal in his cell, the youth in his prospects. Equally encouraging is hope to the Christian. Your hope is implanted within you by Christ, nay, it is associated with Him as He dwells upon the throne of your heart. Hence it is a living and a lively hope; a gracious and blessed hope; a strengthening and stimulating hope. It rests on the covenant of God in the Gospel as its basis; it casts its anchorage into all the future good things of grace and glory promised by Him whose word endureth for ever. Your hope may have much to try it; but it cannot fail if it is the hope which an indwelling Christ inspires. It is an anchor fastened to the eternal Rock of Ages. “Every link in its cable-chain is a promise which shall outlast all the storms of time, and which eternity itself shall never break asunder. The storm may come. The heaviest billows of suffering, of sorrow, of trial, of the very darkness of death, may every hour threaten to swallow up the frail bark. It is impossible; Hope's cable has no end but that which with the anchor twines round Christ. Hope, in the darkest and stormiest hour, has only to join one promise to another, to give forth its cable-chain, and on the billows of adversity ride out the storm, anchored on the Rock of Ages." FOREBODINGS AND THEIR ANTIDOTES. Israel had fallen into the hands of the Midianites, and were sorely oppressed by them. The Lord had a mind to deliver them. For this purpose He sent His angel to Gideon, to commission him to undertake the deliverance. The angel said unto him, "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." And yet with all his valour, mark how forebodingly he speaks unto the angel :"Oh, my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites" (Judges vi, 12, 13). Here was the foreboding of Gideon. Where was the antidote? First, "The Lord is with thee." Secondly, "And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites; have not I sent thee ?" (Judges vi, 14). How often are we like Gideon, reasoning against the Lord; thinking that our evils are evidences of the Lord's absence; seeing no way of escape from them, and nothing but destruction awaiting us. My brother, open thine ear of faith, and listen to what the Lord Jehovah says: "Thou art Mine, I have redeemed thee." 66 My grace is sufficient for thee.” “I will make a way for thy escape." Here is THY MIGHT from the Lord. Go in this, and thou shalt be saved from all thy forebodings. Jacob once thought that all God's dealings made against him; but the reality proved his thoughts to be vain. David, at one time, saw nothing but destruction from Saul. "Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain: and David made haste to get away for fear of Saul; for Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them." Look at the antidote:-" But there came a messenger unto Saul, saying, Haste thee, and come; for the Philistines have invaded the land" (1 Sam. xxii, 26, 27). And now David is safe. Our enemies may surround us; and we may fear: but if we trust in the Lord, He will divert them, confound them, or slay them. WE SHALL BE SAFE. SEEK HOLINESS. There is a great desire in many Christian people for consolation. This seems to be the chief object of their pursuit. If they cannot attain this, they are full of complaint and discouragement. Guard against this error. However valuable and desirable consolation is, it is not the chief thing. Seek holiness. Solid and enduring consolation is the result of this, and not its forerunner. If, therefore, you seek consolation distinct and independent, or prior to holiness, you will fail of the end. Possess holiness, and you will enjoy consolation, if not in its rapturous joys, in its calm, settled, solid nature. This will be the effect of holiness as surely as warmth is the effect of the falling of the sun's rays upon you. HE WHO IS HOLY MUST BE HAPPY, as certainly as are the angels, and the God of the angels. LIFE OUT OF DEATH. While on the one hand you are to reckon yourself dead unto sin, you are on the other to reckon yourself alive unto God, as the result of your death unto sin. "The beautiful flowers spring up from dead seeds; and from the death of those evil principles, that spread so diffusively and darkly over the natural heart, springs up the beauty of a new life, the quiet but ravishing bloom of holiness." UNION WITH CHRIST. "He that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us" (1 John iii, 24). "Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. ii, 20). "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit" (John xv, 4, 5). except ye abide in Me. NEEDLESS FEAR. How prone we are to indulge in fear, where there is no real ground for fear! The disciples as they walked to the sepulchre of Jesus, said one to the other, "Who shall roll us away the stone?" They feared that the stone would be at the mouth of the tomb; they knew they would be unable to remove it; and they doubted whether there would be any one to remove it for them. But how groundless was their fear; for when they came to the sepulchre, and looked, "they saw that the stone was rolled away." Had these disciples truly considered the words of their Lord, His faithfulness, and His power, they would not only not have feared, but believed that the stone was rolled away, and their Lord risen. Are we not often like these disciples in regard to many duties, trials, and sufferings which we anticipate in the future? We see them before us; we approach them; but we fear that they are of such magnitude that it is impossible for us to meet them; but when we come up to them, we find that the "great stone" is rolled away, and our entrance into them is easy and unfettered. Now, had we believed the Word of God, which tells us, as our day our strength shall be, we should never have had any fear. We should have marched on in the right way, believing that every difficulty would be removed, and that the Lord would call us to nothing but He would give grace to meet, or Himself come and do it for us. Oh these needless fears, how depressing is their influence! how they becloud the future! how they rob us of enjoyment in the present! "Give to the winds thy fears; Hope, and be undismay'd: God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears; Through waves, and clouds, and storms, He gently clears thy way; Wait thou His time, so shall this night TROUBLES. We are born to troubles; they are inseparably connected with life, in some form or other, wherever life is found. Religion, even, does not exempt us from troubles, unless it is those which are the necessary consequences of a course of sin. The troubles, however, which come upon us in the religious life are accompanied with the helpful presence of God, the comforts of Divine grace, and the prospect of an eternal deliverance in heaven. Meet, then, the troubles which befall you as a Christian, with fortitude and patience. Take them all as coming for some gracious purpose. They may be various in their kind, such as affliction of the body, depression of mind, trials of faith, "persecution for righteousness' sake," bereavement, loss of earthly goods; nevertheless, as they come forth directly from the Divine counsel, or from agencies which He permits to assail you, they shall "work together for good." "God no sooner," |