Days of Heaven Upon Earth.

by Rev. A. B. Simpson.

THE DAYS OF HEAVEN

The days of heaven are peaceful days, Still as yon gla.s.sy sea; So calm, so still in G.o.d, our days, As the days of heaven would be.

The days of heaven are holy days, From sin forever free; So cleansed and kept our days, O Lord, As the days of heaven would be.

The days of heaven are happy days.

Sorrow they never see; So full of gladness all our days, As the days of heaven would be.

The days of heaven are healthful days, They feed on life's fair tree; So feeding on Thy strength, O Christ, Our days as heaven may be.

Walk with us, Lord, thro' all the days, And let us walk with Thee; Till as Thy will is done in heaven, On earth so shall it be.

JANUARY 1.

"Redeeming the time" (Eph. v. 16).

Two little words are found in the Greek version here. They are translated "_ton kairon_" in the revised version, "Buying up for yourselves the opportunity." The two words _ton kairon_ mean, literally, the opportunity.

They do not refer to time in general, but to a special point of time, a juncture, a crisis, a moment full of possibilities and quickly pa.s.sing by, which we must seize and make the best of before it has pa.s.sed away.

It is intimated that there are not many such moments of opportunity, because the days are evil; like a barren desert, in which, here and there, you find a flower, pluck it while you can; like a business opportunity which comes a few times in a life-time; buy it up while you have the chance. Be spiritually alert; be not unwise, but understanding what the will of G.o.d is. "Walk circ.u.mspectly, not as fools, but as wise, buying up for yourselves the opportunity."

Sometimes it is a moment of time to be saved; sometimes a soul to be led to Christ; sometimes it is an occasion for love; sometimes for patience: sometimes for victory over temptation and sin. Let us redeem it.

JANUARY 2.

"I will cause you to walk in My statutes" (Eze. x.x.xvi. 27).

The highest spiritual condition is one where life is spontaneous and flows without effort, like the deep floods of Ezekiel's river, where the struggles of the swimmer ceased, and he was borne by the current's resistless force.

So G.o.d leads us into spiritual conditions and habits which become the spontaneous impulses of our being, and we live and move in the fulness of the divine life.

But these spiritual habits are not the outcome of some transitory impulse, but are often slowly acquired and established. They begin, like every true habit, in a definite act of will, and they are confirmed by the repet.i.tion of that act until it becomes a habit. The first stages always involve effort and choice. We have to take a stand and hold it steadily, and after we have done so a certain time, it becomes second nature, and carries us by its own force.

The Holy Spirit is willing to form such habits in every direction of our Christian life, and if we will but obey Him in the first steppings of faith, we will soon become established in the att.i.tude of obedience, and duty will be delight.

JANUARY 3.

"Watch and pray" (Matt. xxvi. 41).

We need to watch for prayers as well as for the answers to our prayers. It needs as much wisdom to pray rightly as it does faith to receive the answers to our prayers.

We met a friend the other day, who had been in years of darkness because G.o.d had failed to answer certain prayers, and the result had been a state bordering on infidelity.

A very few moments were sufficient to convince this friend that these prayers had been entirely unauthorized, and that G.o.d had never promised to answer such prayers, and they were for things which this friend should have accomplished himself, in the exercise of ordinary wisdom.

The result was deliverance from a cloud of unbelief which was almost wrecking a Christian life. There are some things about which we do not need to pray, as much as to take the light which G.o.d has already given.

Many persons are asking G.o.d to give them peculiar signs, tokens and supernatural intimations of His will. Our business is to use the light He has given, and then He will give whatever more we need.

JANUARY 4.

"Blessed is the man that walketh not" (Ps. i. 1).

Three things are notable about this man:

1. His company. "He walketh not in the counsel of the unG.o.dly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."

2. His reading and thinking. "His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night."

3. His fruitfulness. "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

The river is the Holy Ghost; the planting, the deep, abiding life in which, not occasionally, but habitually, we absorb the Holy Spirit; and the fruit is not occasional, but continual, and appropriate to each changing season.

His life is also prosperous, and his spirit fresh, like the unfading leaf.

Such a life must be happy. Indeed, happiness is a matter of spiritual conditions. Put a sunbeam in a cellar and it must be bright. Put a nightingale in the darkest midnight, and it must sing.

JANUARY 5.