PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Days of Heaven Upon Earth
Simpson, A. B. (Albert B.), 1843-1919 · 76,963 words · 368 reading sections
FEBRUARY 27.
“Stablish, strengthen, settle you” (I. Peter v. 10). In taking Christ in any new relationship, we must first have sufficient intellectual light to satisfy our mind that we are entitled to stand in this relationship. The shadow of a question here will wreck our confidence. Then, having seen this, we must make the ventu…
207 wordsSECTION 62FEBRUARY 28.
“Count it all joy” (James i. 2). We do not always feel joyful, but we are to count it all joy. The word “reckon” is one of the key-words of Scripture. It is the same word used about our being dead. We do not feel dead. We are painfully conscious of something that would gladly return to life. But we are to treat oursel…
214 wordsSECTION 63MARCH 1.
“Wait on the Lord” (Ps. xxvii. 14). How often this is said in the Bible, how little understood! It is what the old monk calls the “practice of the presence of God.” It is the habit of prayer. It is the continued communion that not only asks, but receives. People often ask us to pray for them and we have to say, “Why, …
212 wordsSECTION 64MARCH 2.
“That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost” (II. Tim. i. 14). God gives to us a power within which will hold our hearts in victory and purity. “That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.” It is the Holy Ghost; and when any thought or suggestio…
215 wordsSECTION 65MARCH 3.
“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous; nevertheless afterward” (Heb. xii. 11). God seems to love to work by paradoxes and contraries. In the transformations of grace, the bitter is the base of the sweet, night is the mother of day, and death is the gate of life. Many people are wanting …
192 wordsSECTION 66MARCH 4.
“They were all filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts ii. 4). Blessed secret of spiritual purity, victory and joy, of physical life and healing, and all power for service. Filled with the Spirit there is no room for self or sin, for fret or care. Filled with the Spirit we repel the elements of disease that are in the air a…
209 wordsSECTION 67MARCH 5.
“I have overcome the world” (John xvi. 33). Christ has overcome for us every one of our four terrible foes—Sin, Sickness, Sorrow, Satan. He has borne our Sin, and we may lay all, even down to our sinfulness itself, on Him. “I have overcome for thee.” He has borne our sickness, and we may detach ourselves from our old …
197 wordsSECTION 68MARCH 6.
“Lean not unto thine own understanding” (Prov. iii. 5). Faith is hindered by reliance upon human wisdom, whether our own or the wisdom of others. The devil’s first bait to Eve was an offer of wisdom, and for this she sold her faith. “Ye shall be as gods,” he said, “knowing good and evil,” and from the hour she began t…
207 wordsSECTION 69MARCH 7.
“It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts xx. 35). How shall we know the difference between the earthly and the heavenly love? The one terminates on ourselves and is partly ourself seeking its own gratification. The other reaches out to God and others, and finds its joy in glorifying Him and blessing them. Lo…
182 wordsSECTION 70MARCH 8.
“Pray Ye therefore” (Luke x. 2). Prayer is the mighty engine that is to move the missionary work. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.” We are asking God to touch the hearts of men every day by the Holy Ghost, so that they shall be compelled to go abroad and pr…
201 wordsSECTION 71MARCH 9.
“How ye ought to walk and please God” (I. Thess. iv. 1). How many dear Christians are in the place that the Lord has appointed them, and yet the devil is harassing their lives with a vague sense of not quite pleasing the Lord. Could they just settle down in the place that God has assigned them and fill it sweetly and …
213 wordsSECTION 72MARCH 10.
“The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds” (Phil. iv. 7). It is not peace with God, but the peace of God. “The peace that passes all understanding” is the very breath of God in the soul. He alone is able to keep it, and He can so keep it that “nothing shall offend us.” Beloved,…
197 wordsSECTION 73MARCH 11.
“But ye are a chosen generation, a peculiar people” (I. Peter ii. 9). We have been thinking lately very much of the strange way in which God is calling a people out of a people already called. The word _ecclesia_, or church, means called out, but God is calling out a still more select body from the church to be His br…
213 wordsSECTION 74MARCH 12.
“They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way” (Ps. cvii. 4). All who fight the Lord’s battles must be content to die to all the favorable opinions of men and all the flattery of human praise. You cannot make an exception in favor of the good opinions of the children of God. It is very easy for the insidious adve…
212 wordsSECTION 75MARCH 13.
“Keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 21). Some time ago, we were enjoying a surpassingly beautiful sunset. The western skies seemed like a great archipelago of golden islands, the masses in the distance rising up into vast mountains of glory. The hue of the sky was so gorgeous that it seemed to reflect itself up…
196 wordsSECTION 76MARCH 14.
“We are His workmanship” (Eph. ii. 10). Christ sends us to serve Him, not in our own strength, but in His resources and might. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them.” We do not have to prepare them; but to wear them as garments, made to or…
220 wordsSECTION 77MARCH 15.
“Continue ye in My love” (John xv. 9). Many atmospheres there are in which we may live. Some people live in an atmosphere of thought. Their faces are thoughtful, minds intellectual. They live in their ideas, their conceptions of truth, their tastes, and esthetic nature. Some people, again, live in their animal nature,…
196 wordsSECTION 78MARCH 16.
“The Lord will give grace and glory” (Ps. lxxxiv. 11). The Lord will give grace and glory. This word _glory_ is very difficult to translate, define and explain; but there is something in the spiritual consciousness of the quickened Christian that interprets it. It is the overflow of grace; it is the wine of life; it i…
192 wordsSECTION 79MARCH 17.
“He hath remembered His covenant forever” (Ps. cv. 8). So long as you struggle under law, that is by your own effort, sin shall have dominion over you: but the moment you step from under the shadow of Sinai, throw yourself upon the simple grace of Christ and His free and absolute gift of righteousness, and take Him to…
220 wordsSECTION 80MARCH 18.
“Neither shall any plague come near thy dwelling” (Ps. xci. 10). We know what it is to be fireproof, to be waterproof: but it is a greater thing to be proof against sin. It is possible to be so filled with the Spirit and presence of Jesus that all the shafts of the enemy glance off our heavenly armor; that all the bur…
222 wordsSECTION 81MARCH 19.
“Launch out into the deep” (Luke v. 4). Many difficulties and perplexities in connection with our Christian life might be best settled by a simple and bold decision of our will to go forward with the light we have and leave the speculations and theories that we cannot decide for further settlement. What we need is to …
200 wordsSECTION 82MARCH 20.
“They which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life” (Rom. v. 17). Precious souls sometimes fight tremendous battles in order to attain to righteousness in trying places. Perhaps the heart has become wrong in some matter where temptation has been allowed to overcome, or at least to…
214 wordsSECTION 83MARCH 21.
“Casting all your care upon Him” (I. Peter v. 7). Some things there are that God will not tolerate in us. We must leave them. Nehemiah would not talk with Sanballat about his charges and fears, but simply refused to have anything to do with the matter—even to go into the temple and pray about it. How very few things w…
205 wordsSECTION 84MARCH 22.
“Hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (Heb. iii. 6). The attitude of faith is simple trust. It is Elijah saying to Ahab, “There is a sound of abundance of rain.” But then there comes usually a deeper experience in which the prayer is inwrought; it is Elijah on the mount, with his f…
204 wordsSECTION 85MARCH 23.
“He is a new creature” (II. Cor. v. 17). Resurrected, not raised. There is so much in this distinction. The teaching of human philosophy is that we are to raise humanity to a higher plane. This is not the Gospel. On the contrary, the teaching of the cross is that humanity must die and sink out of sight and then be res…
181 wordsSECTION 86MARCH 24.
“And again I say, rejoice” (Phil. iv. 4). It is a good thing to rejoice in the Lord. Perhaps you found the first dose ineffectual. Keep on with your medicine, and when you cannot feel any joy, when there is no spring, and no seeming comfort and encouragement, still rejoice, and count it all joy. Even when you fall int…
196 wordsSECTION 87MARCH 25.
“The beauty of holiness” (Ps. xxix. 2). Some one remarked once that he did not know more disagreeable people than sanctified Christians. He probably meant people that only profess sanctification. There is an angular, hard, unlovely type of Christian character that is not true holiness; at least, not the highest type o…
184 wordsSECTION 88MARCH 26.
“Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. xii. 2). Add to your faith—do not add to yourself. This is where we make the mistake. We must not only enter by faith, but we must advance by faith each step of the way. At every new stage we shall find ourselves as incompetent and unequal for the pressure as before,…
201 wordsSECTION 89MARCH 27.
“What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee” (Ps. lvi. 3). We shall never forget a remark Mr. George Mueller once made in answer to a gentleman who asked him the best way to have strong faith. “The only way,” replied the patriarch of faith, “to learn strong faith is to endure great trials. I have learned my faith by …
202 wordsSECTION 90MARCH 28.
“The fruit of the Spirit is all goodness” (Gal. v. 22). Goodness is a fruit of the Spirit. Goodness is just “Godness.” It is to be like God. And God-like goodness has special reference to the active benevolence of God. The apostle gives us the difference between goodness and righteousness in this passage in Romans, “S…
182 wordsSECTION 91MARCH 29.
“He will keep the feet of His saints” (I. Sam. ii. 9). Perils as well as privileges attend the higher Christian life. The nearer we come to God, the thicker the hosts of darkness in heavenly places. The safe place lies in obedience to God’s Word, singleness of heart, and holy vigilance. When Christians speak of stand…
179 wordsSECTION 92MARCH 30.
“I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth” (III. John 2). In the way of righteousness is life and in the pathway thereof is no death. That is the secret of healing. Be right with God. Keep so. Live in the consciousness of it, and nothing can hurt you. Off from the b…
195 wordsSECTION 93MARCH 31.
“What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them” (Mark xi. 24). Faith is not working up by will power a sort of certainty that something is coming to pass, but it is seeing as an actual fact that God has said that this thing shall come to pass, and that it is true, and t…
205 wordsSECTION 94APRIL 1.
“Vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory” (Rom. ix. 23). Our Father is fitting us for eternity. A vessel fitted for the kitchen will find itself in the kitchen. A vessel for the art gallery or the reception room will generally find itself there at last. What are you getting fitted for? To be a slop-pa…
194 wordsSECTION 95APRIL 2.
“He shall dwell on high” (Isa. xxxiii. 16). It is easier for a consecrated Christian to live an out and out life for God than to live a mixed life. A soul redeemed and sanctified by Christ is too large for the shoals and sands of a selfish, worldly, sinful life. The great steamship, St. Paul, could sail in deep water …
189 wordsSECTION 96APRIL 3.
“My expectation is from Him” (Ps. lxii. 5). When we believe for a blessing, we must take the attitude of faith, and begin to act and pray as if we had our blessing. We must treat God as if He had given us our request. We must lean our weight over upon Him for the thing that we have claimed, and just take it for grante…
214 wordsSECTION 97APRIL 4.
“Resist the devil and he will flee” (James iv. 7). Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. This is a promise, and God will keep it to us. If we resist the adversary, He will compel him to flee, and will give us the victory. We can, at all times, fearlessly stand up in defiance, in resistance to the enemy, and cla…
193 wordsSECTION 98APRIL 5.
“Many shall be purified and made white and tried” (Dan. xii. 10). This is the promise for the Lord’s coming. It is more than purity. It is to be made white, lustrous, or bright. To be purified is to have the sin burned out; to be made white is to have the glory of the Lord burned in. The one is cleansing, the other is…
190 wordsSECTION 99APRIL 6.
“As we have many members in one body, so we being many are one body in Christ” (Rom. xii. 4, 5). Sometimes our communion with God is cut off, or interrupted because of something wrong with a brother, or some lack of unity in the body of Christ. We try to get at the Lord, but we cannot, because we are separated from so…
212 wordsSECTION 100APRIL 7.
“In Him we live and move” (Acts xvii. 28). The hand of Gehazi, and even the staff of Elisha could not heal the lifeless boy. It needed the living touch of the prophet’s own divinely quickened flesh to infuse vitality into the cold clay. Lip to lip, hand to hand, heart to heart, he must touch the child ere life could t…
214 wordsSECTION 101APRIL 8.
“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine” (Prov. xvii. 22). King Solomon left among his wise sayings a prescription for sick and sad hearts, and it is one that we can safely take. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” Joy is the great restorer and healer. Gladness of spirit will bring health to the bones and vi…
217 wordsSECTION 102APRIL 9.
“I do always those things that please Him” (John viii. 29). It is a good thing to keep short accounts with God. We were very much struck some years ago with an interpretation of this verse: “So every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.” The thought conveyed to our mind was, that of accounting to God eve…
203 wordsSECTION 103APRIL 10.
“Hold fast the confidence” (Heb. iii. 6). Seldom have we seen a sadder wreck of even the highest, noblest Christian character than when the enemy has succeeded in undermining the simple trust of a child of God, and got him into self-accusing and condemnation. It is a fearful place when the soul allows Satan to take th…
199 wordsSECTION 104APRIL 11.
“Commit thy way unto the Lord” (Ps. xxxvii. 5). Seldom have we heard a better definition of faith than was given once in one of our meetings by a dear old colored woman, as she answered the question of a young man how to take the Lord for needed help. In her characteristic way, pointing her finger toward him, she sai…
181 wordsSECTION 105APRIL 12.
“They were as it were, complainers” (Num. xi. 1). There is a very remarkable phrase in the book of Numbers, in the account of the murmuring of the children of Israel in the wilderness. It reads like this: “When the people, as it were, murmured.” Like most marginal readings it is better than the text, and a great world…
190 wordsSECTION 106APRIL 13.
“Rejoice evermore” (I. Thess. v. 16). Do not lose your joy whatever else you lose. Keep the spirit of spring. “Rejoice evermore,” and “Again I say, rejoice.” The loss of Canaan began in the spirit of murmurings, “When the people, as it were, murmured, it displeased the Lord.” The first break in their fellowship, the …
189 wordsSECTION 107APRIL 14.
“I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto Me” (John xii. 32). A true and pure Christian life attracts the world. There are hundreds of men and women who find no inducements whatever in the lives of ordinary Christians to interest them in practical religion, but who are won at once by a true and victor…
210 wordsSECTION 108APRIL 15.
“Rooted and grounded in love” (Eph. iii. 17). There is a very singular shrub, which grows abundantly in the west, and is to be found in all parts of Texas. It is no less than the “mosquito tree.” It is a very slim, and willowy looking shrub, and would seem to be of little use for any industrial purposes; but is has ex…
184 wordsSECTION 109APRIL 16.
“Quit you like men” (I. Cor. xvi. 13). Be brave. Cowards always get hurt. Brave men generally come out unharmed. Jeremiah was a hero. He shrank from nothing. He faced his king and countrymen with dauntless bravery, and the result was he suffered no harm, but came through the siege of Jerusalem without a hair being inj…
199 wordsSECTION 110APRIL 17.
“He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city” (Prov. xvi. 32). Temperance is true self-government. It involves the grace of self-denial and the spirit of a sound mind. It is that poise of spirit that holds us quiet, self-possessed, recollected, deliberate, and subject ever to the voice of God and th…
203 wordsSECTION 111APRIL 18.
“They shall mount up with wings” (Isa. xl. 31). “They shall mount up with wings as eagles,” is God’s preliminary; for the next promise is, “They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.” Hours of holy exultation are necessary for hours of patient plodding, waiting and working. Nature has its spri…
199 wordsSECTION 112APRIL 19.
“Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him” (Ps. xxxvii. 7). It is a very suggestive thought that it is in the Gospel of Mark, which is the Gospel of service, we hear the Master saying to His disciples, “Come ye apart into a desert place, and rest awhile.” God wants rested workers. There is an energy that may be tir…
208 wordsSECTION 113APRIL 20.
“There they dwelt with the King for His work” (I. Chron. iv. 23). It is easy for water to run down from the upper springs, but it requires a divine impulse to flow up from the valley in the nether springs. There is nothing that tells more of Christ than to see a Christian rejoicing and cheerful in the humdrum and rout…
219 wordsSECTION 114APRIL 21.
“The anointing which ye have received” (I. John ii. 27). This is the secret of the deeper life, but “That ye may be rooted and grounded in love,” is the substance of it, and the sweetness of it. The fulness of the divine love in the heart will make everything easy. It is very easy to do things that we love to do, and …
229 wordsSECTION 115APRIL 22.
“Christ is the head” (Eph. v. 23). Often we want people to pray for us and help us, but always defeat our object when we look too much to them and lean upon them. The true secret of union is for both to look upon God, and in the act of looking past themselves to Him they are unconsciously united. The sailor was right …
200 wordsSECTION 116APRIL 23.
“An high priest touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Heb. iv. 15). Some time ago we were talking with a greatly suffering sister about healing, who was much burdened physically and desirous of being able to trust the Lord for deliverance. After a little conversation we prayed with her, committing her case to …
199 wordsSECTION 117APRIL 24.
“Fret not thyself in any wise” (Ps. xxxvii. 8). A life was lost in Israel because a pair of human hands were laid unbidden upon the ark of God. They were placed upon it with the best intent to steady it when trembling and shaking as the oxen drew it along the rough way, but they touched God’s work presumptuously, and …
208 wordsSECTION 118APRIL 25.
“The very God of Peace sanctify you wholly” (I. Thess. v. 23). A great tidal wave is bearing up the stranded ship, until she floats above the bar without a straining timber or struggling seaman, instead of the ineffectual and toilsome efforts of the struggling crew and the strain of the engines, which had tried in vai…
201 wordsSECTION 119APRIL 26.
“Strangers and pilgrims” (Heb. xi. 13). If you have ever tried to plough a straight furrow in the country—we are sorry for the man that does not know how to plough and more sorry for the man that is too proud to want to know—you have found it necessary to have two stakes in a line and to drive your horses by these sta…
209 wordsSECTION 120APRIL 27.
“The sweetness of the lips” (Prov. xvi. 21). Spiritual conditions are inseparably connected with our physical life. The flow of the divine life-currents may be interrupted by a little clot of blood; the vital current may leak out through a very trifling wound. If you want to keep the health of Christ, keep from all s…
194 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.