PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year
Jowett, John Henry · 80,769 words · 191 reading sections
_Impotent Enemies_
"_I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do._" --JOHN xvii. 1-11. This quiet confession is in itself a token of our Lord's divinity. The serenity in which He makes His claims is as stupendous as the claims themselves. "Finished," perfected in the utmost refinement, to the last, remotest detail! Nothing scamp…
414 wordsSECTION 122_What About To-Morrow?_
"_Thou knowest not the time of thy visitation._" --LUKE xix. 37-44. Yes, that has been my sad experience. I have wasted some of my wealthiest seasons. I have treated the hour as common and worthless, and the priceless opportunity has passed. There have been times when my Lord has come to me, and I have turned Him awa…
454 wordsSECTION 123_The Riches Of Spirituality_
"_The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom._" --JOB xxviii. 12-28. Mere learning will not make me wise. The path to wisdom is not necessarily through the schools. The brilliant scholar may be an arrant fool. True wisdom is found, not in mental acquisitions, but in a certain spiritual relation. The wise man is known by the…
436 wordsSECTION 124_The Real Gains And Losses_
PSALM cxix. 97-104. A man may measure his growth in grace by his growing delight in the speech of the Lord. When His words are unwelcome in my ears, when they are an intrusion which mars my pleasures, it is clear I am still in the far country of revolt. But if His words make "music in my ears," if the Lord's conversat…
399 wordsSECTION 125_Prayer And Revolution_
MATTHEW vi. 25-34. I must put first things first. The radical fault in much of my living is want of proportion. I think more of pretty window curtains than of fresh air, more of "nice" wallpaper than of the moving pageant of the skies. I magnify the immediate desire and minimize the ultimate goal. And so "things do no…
421 wordsSECTION 126_A Portrait Of A Great Suppliant_
JOHN ii. 1-11. Our Lord always demands our best. He will not work with our second-best. His gracious "extra" is given when our own resources are exhausted. We must do our best before our Master will do His miracle. We must "fill the water-pots with water"! We must bring "the five loaves and two fishes"! We must "let d…
453 wordsSECTION 127_Contemptuous Words_
MATTHEW ix. 18-26. And, so one man's faith is more than a match for many people's scorn. The steady trust of the ruler was not shaken by the rude flippancy of the artificial mourners, and his daughter was brought from the dead. "This is the victory that overcometh, even our faith." Everything bows, like fragile reeds,…
440 wordsSECTION 128_The Bracing Air Of Publicity_
HEBREWS xi. 1-6. I like the marginal rendering of the introductory sentence of this great chapter. "_Faith is the giving substance to things hoped for._" Faith converts cloudy castles into substantial homes. Faith substantiates the unseen. Faith sucks the energy out of splendid ideals, and incorporates it in present a…
437 wordsSECTION 129_Criticism And Piety_
PSALM xxxii. Here is the burden of unconfessed sin. "_When I kept silence my bones waxed old._" There is nothing brings on premature age like secret sin. It keeps the mind in perpetual unrest, and a troubled mind soon makes the body old. The real nourisher of the body is a quiet and radiant soul. But let the soul be i…
387 wordsSECTION 130_The Garments Of The Soul_
"_They feared the Lord, and served their own gods._" --2 KINGS xvii. 24-34. And that is an old-world record, but it is quite a modern experience. The kinsmen of these ancient people are found in our own time. Men still fear one God and serve another. But something is vitally wrong when men can divorce their fear from…
428 wordsSECTION 131_The Sense Of Want_
PSALM li. What will the Lord do with my sin, if in true humility I come into His Presence? Let me hear the music of the evangel. He will "_blot out my transgression_." He will so erase it that even His own holy eyes can see no stain or shame. He will blot it out, as I have seen a gloomy cloudlet blotted out, and ther…
385 wordsSECTION 132_The Steadfastness Of The Lord_
PSALM ciii. 1-18. Could there be a sweeter chime than the opening music of this psalm? "_Who forgiveth all thine iniquities._" He receives me back home again, interrupts the broken story of my sin, and drowns my sobbings in His rejoicings. "_Who healeth all thy diseases._" He takes in hand the foul complaints which …
428 wordsSECTION 133_The All-Round Defence_
JEREMIAH xvii. 5-11. Let me look at "the blessed man" in the interpreting symbol of this healthy and graceful tree. The blessed life is a life of vast resource. "_As a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river._" It is not watered by an occasional shower, it is unceasingly bathed by th…
399 wordsSECTION 134_The Pathetic Multitude_
JOHN vi. 1-21. The Lord who came to save His people was sensitive to His people's hunger. In the presence of the supreme need the smaller need was not forgotten. He honoured the body as well as the soul. He ministered to the transient as well as the eternal. And that is ever the characteristic of true kingliness; it h…
458 wordsSECTION 135_The Handful Of Meal_
MARK viii. 10-21. It is gracious to know that my Lord is "the Bread of Life," and that I can feed on Him. It is fearful to know that I, too, am bread, and that others are feeding on me. Am I the nutriment of vice or the sustenance of virtue? Am I an evil leaven, like the Pharisees, or a holy leaven like the Lord? When…
442 wordsSECTION 136_After The Triumph!_
2 KINGS iv. 38-44. Here is a man recognizing the sacredness of his substance. He saw the seal of the Lord upon his harvest, and he offered the first-fruits in token of its rightful Owner. Men go wrong when the only name upon their field is their own. "_My_ power, and the strength of _my_ hand hath gotten me this wealt…
448 wordsSECTION 137_My Lord As My Bread_
PSALM cvii. 21-32. A vital part of all devotion is the remembrance of the goodness of God. Such a remembrance keeps my soul in the realm of grace. I am so inclined to proclaim my personal rights rather than glorify the favour of God, so inclined to exhibit my own prowess rather than God's most gracious bounty. And whe…
443 wordsSECTION 138_The Daily Manna_
JOHN vi. 52-63. There is, first of all, _appropriation_. I must "stretch out" "lame hands of faith"; and "take" before I "eat." In the lives of many Christians there is too much asking and too little taking. If it were only rightly regarded, prayer is companionship as well as petition, and companionship is literally s…
420 wordsSECTION 139_White Robes In The Streets_
1 JOHN v. 9-21. My Lord is "the fountain of life." "This life is in His Son." The springs are nowhere else--not in elaborate theologies, or in ethical ideals, or in literary masterpieces, or in music or art. "In Him was life." It is so easy to forget the medicinal spring amid the distractions of the fashionable spa. T…
435 wordsSECTION 140_Humbling Our Pride_
PSALM lxxviii. 15-25. "They believed not in God ... though He had----" Let everyone finish that sentence out of his own experience. How much grace can our unbelief withstand? The Lord had made the rock like unto a spring of water, and yet these people believed not! What has He done for thee and me? Let us retrace the …
448 wordsSECTION 141_Creator And Creature_
JEREMIAH x. 10-16. "He hath made the earth by His power." And He is making it still. Even in the material world "His mercies are new every morning." James Smetham used to speak of going into his garden "to see what the Lord is doing." He would stand on the top of Highgate Hill on a blustering night "to watch the going…
401 wordsSECTION 142_He Knoweth Our Frame_
PSALM cxlviii. "Praise ye the Lord." And the Psalmist calls upon the creation to join in the anthem. And that is the gracious purpose of our God, that the world should be filled with harmonious praise. It is His will that the character of man should harmonize with the flowers of the field, that the beauty of his habit…
394 wordsSECTION 143_God'S Glorious Purpose_
ACTS xvii. 22-31. "As though He needed anything." "He may not need us; but does He want us?" Such is the question I heard Dr. Parker ask as he preached upon these words. And he took up a handful of flowers which he had upon the pulpit, and said: "These flowers were gathered for me by little hands in a Devonshire lane.…
385 wordsSECTION 144_Our Refuge And Strength_
1 THESSALONIANS iv. 13-18. Death is not an end; it is only a new beginning. Death is not the master of the house; he is only the porter at the King's lodge, appointed to open the gate, and let in the King's guests into the realms of eternal day. "And so shall we be ever with the Lord." And so the range of three score…
396 wordsSECTION 145_Round-About Ways_
"_Get thee out ... and I will show thee." "So Abram departed ... and the Lord appeared._" --GENESIS xii. 1-9. We must bring these separated passages together if we would appreciate the graciousness of the Lord's call. They are like the two sides of the same shield. They answer each other as voice and echo. When I move…
389 wordsSECTION 146_Commonplace People_
GALATIANS iii. 6-14. Emerson says somewhere that he has noticed that men whose duties are performed beneath great domes acquire a stately and appropriate manner. The vergers in our great cathedrals have a dignified stride. It is not otherwise with men who consciously live under the power of vast relationships. Princes…
367 wordsSECTION 147_The Inspirations Of The Past_
LUKE v. 27-32. Matthew was very weary, and the all-seeing Lord read the signs of his spiritual dissatisfaction and unrest. As Jesus "passed by" nothing escaped His watchful eye. He saw a look in Matthew's eye as of some caged creature longing for freedom. Matthew's office, the contempt of his fellows, and perhaps his …
429 wordsSECTION 148_Unanimity In The Soul_
"_He inquired not of the Lord._" --1 CHRONICLES x. 6-14. That was where Saul began to go wrong. When quest ceases, conquests cease. "He inquired not"; and this meant loss of light. God will be inquired after. He insists that we draw up the blinds if we would receive the light. If we board up our windows He will not dr…
412 wordsSECTION 149_The Lord As The Servant_
"_Let your loins be girded about._" --LUKE xii. 35-40. Loose garments can be very troublesome. An Oriental robe, if left ungirdled, entangles the feet, or is caught by the wind and hinders one's goings. And therefore the wearer binds the loose attire together with a girdle, and makes it firm and compact about his body…
427 wordsSECTION 150_The True Standard Of Greatness_
ISAIAH lvii. 13-21. Let us look at this description of the dwelling-place of the Eternal God. "_I dwell with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit._" And who are the contrite? In the original word there is the significance of pieces of rock or lumps of soil having been crumbled into the finest powder. Have…
429 wordsSECTION 151"_Push_" _And_ "_Pull_"
MATTHEW xx. 20-28. It is always our peril that we hunger for place more than for character, for position more than for disposition, for a temporal sceptre more than for a majestic self-control. These disciples coveted places on the right and left of the Lord, and they had little or no concern about their worthiness f…
406 wordsSECTION 152_The Lust Of The External_
1 PETER v. 1-11. Let me, therefore, learn this lesson, that if my Lord should give me prominence in His church it is not to feed my lust of dominion, but in order to strengthen and extend the influence of the church's life. "_Neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the…
401 wordsSECTION 153_Pleasantness And Peace_
PROVERBS iii. 1-12. "Acknowledge Him." But not with a passing nod of recognition. I must not merely glance at Him now and again, admitting His existence on the field. To acknowledge Him is to acknowledge Him as King, with the right to control, and as predominant partner in all the affairs of my life, even the right to…
369 wordsSECTION 154_A Testimony Meeting_
DEUTERONOMY xxxi. 7-13. And no ears are more receptive to spiritual story than the ears of a little child. It is not needful to open the gate of interest; it is wide ajar already. And imagination also is there, ready to busy itself about the story. And so, too, is the spirit of homage and adoration. The children are r…
414 wordsSECTION 155_In The Days Of Youth_
PSALM lxxxi. This is an unutterable mystery, that a man can close his life against God. "_Israel would have none of Me._" We can shut out God as we can shut out the pure air. We can bar His entrance just as we can exclude the light from the chamber. And then the pity is, we can deceive ourselves into believing that th…
410 wordsSECTION 156_The Lord'S Own_
"_Suffer little children to come unto Me._" --MARK x. 13-22. "Unto _Me_!" We must not keep them at any half-way house. We are so prone to be satisfied if only we bring them a little way along the road. If we get them to pray! If we get them to attend the Lord's house! If we get them to be truthful and gentle! All of w…
413 wordsSECTION 157_The Temple Of The Body_
JOHN xv. 26--xvi. 11. The Holy Spirit is to be a witness of Jesus. "_He shall testify of Me._" He shall be "the Friend of the Bridegroom," and He shall sing the Bridegroom's grace, and goodness, and prowess, in the eager ear of the bride. And the early love of the bride shall become deeper and richer as more and more …
421 wordsSECTION 158_Rejected Love_
JOHN xvi. 25-33. Here is a strange medley of experiences! I am to enjoy the gift of peace, and yet I am to be smarting under tribulation! When the Holy Spirit is my guest I am to enjoy the gift of peace. "_These things I said unto you that ye might have peace._" The life of the soul is to move without jar or discord.…
417 wordsSECTION 159_The Holy Spirit As Emancipator_
1 CORINTHIANS ii. 9-16. Our finest human instruments fail to obtain for us "_the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him_." Art fails! "_Eye hath not seen._" The merely artistic vision is blind to the hidden glories of grace. Philosophy fails! "_Neither hath ear heard._" We may listen to the philosopher…
424 wordsSECTION 160_Foiling The Enemy'S Plots_
LUKE v. 1-11. Here is obedience in spite of the night of failure. "_Nevertheless, at Thy word I will let down the net._" That word "nevertheless" has always made history. It has been spoken after scourgings, after "bonds and imprisonments." Ten thousand times has it been heard in the chamber of bereavement, the first …
429 wordsSECTION 161_A Transformed Fisherman_
LUKE xxii. 54-62. From Peter's denial I would learn the peril of the first cowardly surrender to sin. Surely Peter must have "trimmed" many times in the days which preceded his actual discipleship. Great crises do not make men, they reveal them. The men have been made in the smaller issues which go before. We march to…
410 wordsSECTION 162_The Music Of Reconciliation_
JOHN xxi. 15-25. "Lovest thou Me?" There was a day, only a little while back, when Simon Peter's love was not yet purified, and it indulged itself in loud and empty boasts. True love never blusters and brawls. It is like a stream of water flowing silently underground, and secretly bathing the roots of things, and keep…
404 wordsSECTION 163_If God Be For Us----!_
ACTS iv. 13-22. Here is a marvellous transformation! I have been wondering at the littleness of the denier, and now this same denier is making the world wonder by his majestic boldness! His one resource is now the risen Christ, and his one moral standard is "whether it be right!" Once he quailed before an accusing mai…
395 wordsSECTION 164_The Armour Of God_
"_He maketh my feet like hinds' feet._" --PSALM xviii. 31-39. I think of Wordsworth's lines, in which he describes a natural lady, made by Nature herself: "She shall be sportive as the fawn That wild with glee across the lawn Or up the mountain springs." And it is this buoyancy, this elasticity, this springiness t…
426 wordsSECTION 165_The Early Builders_
"_Abraham, my friend._" --ISAIAH xli. 8-16. I think that is the noblest title ever given to mortal man. It is the speech of the Lord God concerning one of His children. It is something to be coveted even to enjoy the friendship of a noble man; but to have the friendship of God, and to have the holy God name us as His …
428 wordsSECTION 166_The Stranger_
1 KINGS viii. 22-36. In this portion of this great prayer I discern the unalterable mode in which nations and individuals recover their moral health and strength. How do they lose it? Two words tell the story. They "_sin_" and are "_smitten_." It is an inevitable sequence. Every sin is the minister of disease. Someti…
385 wordsSECTION 167_After The Prayer The Fire!_
1 KINGS viii. 54-66. And that is the healthy order of all true worship. It begins in spacious supplication in which "the stranger" finds a place. Then there is a lavish consecration of self and substance. And then the wedding-bells begin to ring, and "the joy of the Lord is our strength!" "_They went unto their tents …
354 wordsSECTION 168_The Value Of Reverence_
"_This house which I have sanctified will I cast out of my sight, and will make it a proverb and a by-word among all nations._" --2 CHRONICLES vii. 12-22. And thus am I taught that consecrated houses are nothing without consecrated souls. It is not the mode of worship, but the spirit of the worshipper which forms the …
426 wordsSECTION 169_Transforming Our Foes_
"_Overcome evil with good._" --ROMANS xii. 9-21. For how else can we cast out evil? Satan cannot cast out Satan. No one can clean a room with a filthy duster. The surgeon cannot cut out the disease if his instruments are defiled. While he removed one ill-growth he would sow the seed of another. It must be health which…
455 wordsSECTION 170_A Faithful Friend_
"_With the Lord there is mercy._" --PSALM cxxx. That is the ultimate spring. All the pilgrims of the night may meet at that fountain. We have no other common meeting-place. If we make any other appointment we shall lose one another on the way. But we can meet one another at the fountain, men of all colours, and of all…
430 wordsSECTION 171_Arms And The Man!_
JOHN xv. 8-17. "Ye are my friends!" In my Lord's friendship there is _the ministry of sacrifice_. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." This great Friend is always giving His blood. It is a lasting shame when professed Christians are afflicted with spiritual anæmia. And y…
423 wordsSECTION 172_Children Of Light_
1 THESSALONIANS v. 5-11. Can we think of a more beautiful figure than this--"_children of light_"? As I write these words I look out upon a building every window of which is ablaze with light, every room the home of attractive brightness. And my life is to be like that! And I look again and I see a lighthouse sending …
260 wordsSECTION 173_The Grace Of Lowliness_
1 CHRONICLES xvii. 1-15. So the best was for man, and the second-best for God! The cedar for self-indulgence, and the curtains for the home of worship! It is a marked sign of spiritual awakening when a man begins to contrast his own indulgences with the rights of God. There are so many of us who are lavish in our home…
368 wordsSECTION 174_Judged By Our Aspirations_
"_Take heed now, for the Lord hath chosen thee to build._" --1 CHRONICLES xxviii. 1-10. And how must he take heed? For it may be that the Lord hath also chosen me to build, and the counsel given to Solomon may serve me in this later day. Let me listen. "_Serve Him with a perfect heart._" God's chosen builders must be…
438 wordsSECTION 175_The Only Wise Beginning_
"_Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound._" --PSALM lxxxix. 1-18. Blessed is the people who love the sound of the silver trumpet which calls to holy convocation! Blessed is the people who are sacredly impatient for the hour of holy communion! Blessed is the people "in whose heart are the highways to Zion." A…
429 wordsSECTION 176_Relating Everything To God_
"_He hath spoken to us in His Son._" --HEBREWS i. And that blessed Son spake my language. He came into my troubled conditions and expressed Himself out of my humble lot. My surroundings afforded Him a language in which He made known His good news. The carpenter's shop, the shepherd on the hill, the ladened vine, a way…
436 wordsSECTION 177_The Sacred Use Of Liberty_
"_Put difference between the holy and the unholy._" --LEVITICUS x. 1-10. The peril of our day is that so many of these differences are growing faint. The holy merges into the unholy, and we can scarcely see the dividing line. Black merges into white through manifold shades of grey. Falsehood slopes into truth through …
432 wordsSECTION 178_The Greatest Wonders_
"_Whether we live, we live unto_...." --ROMANS xiv. 7-21. Unto what? In what direction are we living? Whither are we going? How do we complete the sentence? "We live unto _money_!" That is how many would be compelled to finish the record. Money is their goal, and their goal determines their tendency. "We live unto _pl…
371 wordsSECTION 179_The Sinner'S Guest_
EXODUS xv. 11-18. When we invent little devices to protect us against the evil one, he laughs at our petty presumption. It is like unto a child erecting sand ramparts against an incoming sea. The only thing that makes the devil fear is the presence of God. Our money can do nothing. Our culture can do nothing. Our soci…
420 wordsSECTION 180_The Coming Of The Lord_
"_A light to lighten the Gentiles._" --LUKE ii. 25-40. That was the wonder of wonders. Hitherto the light had been supposed to be for Israel alone; and now a heavenly splendour was to fall upon the Gentiles. Hitherto the light had been thought of as a lamp, illuming a single place; now it was to be a sun, shedding its…
446 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.