I am so thankful that I have a joy that the world can not rob me of; I have a treasure that the world can not take from me; I have something that it is not in the power of man or devil to deprive me of, and that is the joy of the Lord. "No man taketh it from you." In the second century, they brought a martyr before a king, and the king wanted him to recant and give up Christ and Christianity, but the man spurned the proposition. But the king said: "If you don't do it, I will banish you." The man smiled and answered: "You can't banish me from Christ, for He says He will never leave me nor forsake me." The king got angry, and said: "Well, I will confiscate your property and take it all from you." And the man replied: "My treasures are laid up on high; you can not get them." The king became still more angry, and said: "I will kill you." "Why," the man answered, "I have been dead forty years; I have been dead with Christ; dead to the world, and my life is hid with Christ in God, and you can not touch it." And so we can rejoice, because we are on resurrection ground, having risen with Christ. Let persecution and opposition come, we can rejoice continually, and remember that our reward is great, reserved for us unto the day when He who is our Life shall appear, and we shall appear with Him in glory.
"THE Spirit, oh, sinner, In mercy doth move Thy heart, so long hardened, Of sin to reprove; _Resist_ not the Spirit, Nor longer delay; God's gracious entreaties may end with to-day.
Oh, child of the kingdom, From sin service cease; Be filled with the Spirit, With comfort and peace. Oh, _grieve_ not the Spirit, Thy Teacher is He, That Jesus, thy Saviour, may glorified be.
Defiled is the temple, Its beauty laid low, On God's holy altar The embers faint glow, By love yet rekindled, A flame may be fanned; Oh, _quench_ not the Spirit, _the Lord is at hand!_"
--_P. P. Bliss._