Though a veil hangs over the future, you have a knowledge of the Lord’s mercies in the past. Allow no difficulties to discourage you. You have passed through trials, and you will be called to pass through trials again. You have had to pass through experiences not altogether agreeable, and these experiences may be repeated. Temptations have come to you, and temptations will come to you again.

We know not what is before us; but we know that we have the privilege of committing our souls to God, as unto a faithful Creator. Let us thank God that we have a refuge in trial. Let us remember that Christ is a present help in every time of need. The promises of God’s Word are rich and full and free. God is with us; He cares for us.

God is revealed to us in Christ. Our Saviour is the image of the invisible God. Oh, how near to heaven we may be. “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,” Christ declared.

Let us allow no worldly business to absorb our energies. Let us allow nothing to occupy the place that God should fill. We must have periods of rest, times set apart for meditation and prayer and for spiritual refreshing. Christ went about doing good, healing all manner of sickness and forgiving all sins, comforting the mourners, banishing sorrow by His presence. Let us behold Him—the very compassion and lovingkindness of God Himself.

Let us seek the Lord…. Never forget that you are God’s little children. Refuse to worry about what you cannot help. If you make mistakes, go to the compassionate Saviour and ask Him for forgiveness. Tell Him that you want to follow His will. Be polite to God. Remember that He cares for you, and that He will be a present help in every time of need. His “tender mercies are over all his works.”

It is our privilege to open our hearts and let the Saviour in. Let us praise Him for the brightness of His presence. Let us carry the sunshine of His love on our countenances and bring it into our words. Then His joy will be in us, and our joy will be full….

The breath of the higher life is to be breathed into our lifework. This will bind us to one another, and to God. The love of Christ needs to come into our experience. Then we shall love one another as Christ has loved us.—Letter 81, May 8, 1903, to Dr. D. H. Kress and wife. (Dr. Kress was director of the Sydney Sanitarium.)
The Upward Look p. 142
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Prayer Requests
—-I need your prayers for healing. Helen
—-I have an unspoken request. Buck
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Dear Friends,
Some years ago, we had an unusually hard winter. It was very cold and the snow stayed on the ground for days. One day when i come home, I found that we had no water. We had failed to let a faucet drip slightly to keep the pipes from freezing. So, not one drop would come out of any faucet in the house. This was very inconvenient as I had wanted to get supper and needed to wash my hands. I called Ron who had gone to get gas. He assured me that he was almost home and that he would put a space heater under the trailer to thaw it out.
Ron took the heater out of storage, waded through the snow to the back of the trailer, removed a panel of skirting, turned on the heater, stuck it near the water intake pipe, and plugged it in. Nothing happened. For some reason, the heater had broken. He brought it inside to test it. Nothing. So he had to drive the five miles to the store to buy another heater. Once he placed the new one in position, it only took ten minutes for the pipes to thaw. From then on, we left water dripping from a faucet or two to insure that we continue to have this necessity.
How easy it is for us to let our spiritual “pipes” freeze just as surely as our water pipes did that winter day. Just as the water in those pipes became hardened because it was not moving, so we are in danger of becoming just as frozen if we do not become a channel of blessing to others. “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.” John 3:27 Jesus bids us, “freely ye have received, freely give.” Matt 10:8 Only as we help others are we, ourselves, helped. Only as we use the blessings our Great Creator so freely bestows, do we receive more. Yet, how often we are like the man who hid his talent in the ground. Because of his do-nothing attitude, his Master called him a “wicked and slothful servant.” (Matt 25:14-30)
How much we need the warmth of God’s love to “thaw” us out. We may try to thaw ourselves but we are no more successful than was our broken heater to thaw out the pipes. Jeremiah observes, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” Jer 13:23
“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. . . . Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” Luke 12:35-47
May we allow God’s blessings to flow through us to all those around. May we be faithful in all that we do. May we someday soon hear our Saviour say to us, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” Matt 25:21
Rose

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