For wise naturally we desire to live. purposes He hath given us a strong yearning; and the believer may yearn to live, or wish for health, without in any wise offending God. 2. As the Word speaks,-Is any among you afflicted? let him pray, so if I beseech God to restore me to health, the voice of faith may be heard: I may prevail, if I rightly plead. He who loveth to answer prayer, may say to me as He did to Hezekiah, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee. I hoped that, with the brave and strong, To toil among the busy throng, These weary hours will not be lost, These days of misery, These nights of darkness, tempest-tost, Can I but turn to Thee; With secret labour to sustain If Thou should'st bring me back to life More wise, more strengthened for the strife, Thus should I keep my vow, But, LORD, whatever be my fate, Oh, let me serve Thee now! Dain. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.— ST. MATTHEW XXVI. 41. And there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly.-ST. LUKE XXII. 43. JESUS, Saviour! sympathize In Thy life-time Thou hast known In this weary solemn hour, That Thy gentle hand alone Gives the pain that makes me moan. Strangers and Pilgrims. Here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.-HEB. XIII. 14. In the 11th chapter of this Epistle I read about the Patriarchs, and others of God's people, who had a sure belief in things not seen, living and dying in faith. As strangers and pilgrims on the earth, they desired and looked for a heavenly country. So I read that Abraham spent his days as in a strange country; for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Do I realize that I also am a stranger in the earth? Am I living in remembrance that this is not my home? Am I praying to live as a pilgrim,—as one on a journey, sojourning in a frail tabernacle? Do I feel, and rejoice in the feeling, that I am journeying on towards eternity? This, I know, is the faithful pilgrim's joy, -he is drawing nearer and nearer to a heavenly home! Nearer to God! Here, in the body pent, Absent from Him I roam, Yet nightly pitch my moving tent stranger here. PRAYER. ALMIGHTY GOD, teach me that I am a help me to live more nearly as I pray. Bless me with stronger faith. Open Thou mine eyes, that I may have confidence in things not seen. May I live looking for the house not made with hands, the home eternal in the heavens. In my weakness do Thou, my God, bless me with Thy strength. Lead me in my pilgrimage. Day by day may I feel Thee, O loving Saviour, near; that so in the light of Thy countenance I may journey onward -step by step,-content even when the way is difficult, and joyful in hope of eternal rest. |