Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. This is a promise, and G.o.d 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 claim the protection of our heavenly King just as a citizen would claim the protection of the government against an outrage or injustice on the part of violent men. At the same time we are not to stand on the adversary's ground anywhere by any att.i.tude or disobedience, or we give him a terrible power over us, which, while G.o.d will restrain in great mercy and kindness, He will not fully remove until we get fully on holy ground. Therefore, we must be armed with the breastplate of righteousness, as well as the shield of faith, if we would successfully resist the prince of darkness and the princ.i.p.alities in heavenly places.

Your full redemption rights With holy boldness claim, And to the utmost fulness prove The power of Jesus' name.

APRIL 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, l.u.s.trous, 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 illumination and glorification. The Lord has both for us, but in order for us to have both, we must be put into the fire to be tried, and to be led into difficult and peculiar places where Christ shall be more to us because of the very extremity of the situation. We are approaching these days. Indeed, they are already around us, and they are the precursors of the Lord's coming.

Blessed is he that keepeth his garments lest he walk naked.

There are voices in the air, filling men with hope and fear; There are signals everywhere that the end is drawing near, There are warnings to prepare, for the King will soon be here; O it must be the coming of the Lord!

APRIL 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 G.o.d 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 some member of the Lord's body, or because there is not the freedom of His love flowing through every organic part. It does not need a blow upon the head to paralyze the brain; a blow upon some nerve may do it; or a wound in some artery at the extremities may be fatal to the heart.

Therefore we must stand right with all His children, and meet in the body of Christ in the sweetest, fullest fellowship, if we would keep our perfect communion with Christ Himself. Sometimes we will find that an altered att.i.tude to one Christian will bring us into the flood-tides of the Holy Ghost. It seems impossible to have faith without love, or to have Christ alone without the fulness of fellowship with all His dear saints; and if one member suffer, all suffer together, and if one rejoice, all are blessed in common.

APRIL 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 thrill his pulseless veins.

We must come into personal contact with the risen Saviour, and have His very life quicken our mortal flesh before we can know the fulness and reality of His healing. This is the most frequent cause of failure. People are often trusting to something that has been done to them, to something that they have done, or something that they have believed intellectually; but their spirit has not felt its way to the heart of Christ, and they have not drawn His love into their being by the hunger and thirst of love and faith, and so they are not quickened. The greatest need of our souls and bodies is to know Jesus personally, to touch Him constantly, to abide in Him continually.

May we this day lay aside all things that could hinder our near approach to Him, and walk hand in hand, heart to heart, with Jesus.

APRIL 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 vitality to the nerves when all other tonics fail, and all other sedatives cease to quiet. Sick one, begin to rejoice in the Lord, and your bones will flourish like an herb, and your cheeks will glow with the bloom of health and freshness. Worry, fear, distrust, care, are all poison drops; joy is balm and healing; and if you will but rejoice, G.o.d will give power. He has commanded you to be glad and rejoice; and He never fails to sustain His children in keeping His commandments. Rejoice in the Lord always, He says; which means no matter how sad, how tempted, how sick, how suffering you are, rejoice in the Lord just where you are, and begin this moment.

The joy of the Lord is the strength of our body, The gladness of Jesus, the balm for our pain, His life and His fulness, our fountain of healing, His joy, our elixir for body and brain.

APRIL 9.

"I do always those things that please Him" (John viii. 29).

It is a good thing to keep short accounts with G.o.d. 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 G.o.d." The thought conveyed to our mind was, that of accounting to G.o.d every day of our lives, so that our accounts were settled daily, and for us judgment was pa.s.sed, as we lay down on our pillows every night.

This is surely the true way to live. It is the secret of great peace, and it will be a delightful comfort when life is closing, or the Master coming, to know that our account is settled, and our judgment over, and for us there is only waiting the glad "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

Step by step I'll walk with Jesus, Just a moment at a time, Heights I have not wings to soar to, Step by step my feet can climb.

Jesus, keep me closer-closer, Step by step and day by day Stepping in Thy very foot-prints, Walking with Thee all the way.

APRIL 10.

"Hold fast the confidence" (Heb. iii. 6).

Seldom have we seen a sadder wreck of even the highest, n.o.blest Christian character than when the enemy has succeeded in undermining the simple trust of a child of G.o.d, and got him into self-accusing and condemnation.

It is a fearful place when the soul allows Satan to take the throne and act as G.o.d, sitting in judgment on its every thought and act; and keeping it in the darkness of ceaseless condemnation. Well indeed has the apostle told us to hold firmly the shield of faith!

This is Satan's objective point in all his attacks upon you, to destroy your trust. If he can get you to lose your simple confidence in G.o.d, he knows that he will soon have you at his feet.

It is enough to wreck both the reason and the life for the soul that has known the sweetness of His love to lose its perfect trust in G.o.d.

"Beloved, hold fast your confidence and the rejoicing of your hope firm unto the end."

Fear not to take your place With Jesus on the throne, And bid the powers of earth and h.e.l.l, His sovereign sceptre own.