August 31

Morning

On mine arm shall they trust. — Isa 51:5

In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can trust to, and is therefore compelled to cast himself on his God alone. When his vessel is quickly sinking, and no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy storm—that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane—that drives the soul to God and God alone!

There is no getting at our God sometimes—because of the multitude of our friends. But when a man is so poor, so friendless, so helpless that he has nowhere else to turn—he flies into his Father’s arms, and is blessedly clasped therein! When he is burdened with troubles so pressing and so heavy, that he cannot tell them to any but his God, he may be thankful for them; for he will learn more from his Lord then, than at any other time. Oh, tempest-tossed believer, it is a happy trouble which drives you to your Father!

Now that you have only your God to trust to, see that you put your full confidence in Him. Dishonor not your Lord and Master by unworthy doubts and fears; but be strong in faith, giving glory to God. Show the world that your God is worth ten thousand worlds to you. Show rich men how rich you are in your poverty, when the Lord God is your helper. Show the strong man how strong you are, in your weakness when underneath you are the everlasting arms. Now is the time for feats of faith and valiant exploits.

Be strong and very courageous, and the Lord your God shall certainly, as surely as He built the heavens and the earth, glorify Himself in your weakness, and magnify his might in the midst of your distress. The grandeur of the arch of heaven would be spoiled if the sky were supported by a single visible column, and your faith would lose its glory if it rested on anything discernible by the carnal eye. May the Holy Spirit give you to rest in Jesus this closing day of the month.

Evening

If we walk in the light, as he is in the light. — 1 John 1:7

“As He is in the light!” Can we ever attain to this? Shall we ever be able to walk as clearly in the light, as He is whom we call “Our Father,” of whom it is written, “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all”? Certainly, this is the model which it set before us, for the Savior Himself said, “Be perfect—even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.” And although we may feel that we can never attain the perfection of God—yet we are to seek after it, and never to be satisfied until we attain to it.

The youthful artist, as he grasps his first paint brush, can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michael Angelo. But still, if he did not have a noble ideal before his mind, he would only attain to something very low and ordinary.

But what is meant by the expression that the Christian is to walk in light—as God is in the light? We conceive it to import likeness but not degree. We are as truly in the light, we are as heartily in the light, we are as sincerely in the light, as honestly in the light—though we cannot be there in the same measure. I cannot dwell in the sun, it is too bright a place for my residence but I can walk in the light of the sun. Just so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of purity and truth which belongs to the Lord Almighty by nature as the infinitely good—yet I can set the Lord always before me, and strive, by the help of the indwelling Spirit, after conformity to His image.

That famous old commentator, John Trapp, says, “We may be in the light—as God is in the light for quality but not for equality.” We are to have the same light, and are as truly to have it and walk in it—as God does, though, as for equality with God in His holiness and purity, that must be left until we cross the Jordan and enter into the perfection of the Most High God. Mark that the blessings of sacred fellowship and perfect cleansing—are bound up with walking in the light!