Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord. Hosea 6:3.
The Lord has brought us into the pathway of the knowledge of Him, and bids us pursue that path through all its strange meanderings until it opens out upon the plain where God's throne is. Our life is a following on to know the Lord. We marvel at some of the experiences through which we are called to pass, but afterwards we see that they afforded us some new knowledge of our Lord.... We have not to wait for some brighter opportunity; but by improvement of the present are to build for ourselves a bridge to that future.
—G Bowen
Thoughts for the Quiet Hour.
Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house. Gen. 12:1.
Abraham... was gathered to his people. Gen. 25:8.
After all communion we dwell as upon islands, dotted over a great archipelago, each upon his little rock with the sea dashing between us; but the time comes when, if our hearts are set upon that great Lord whose presence makes us one, there shall be no more sea and all the isolated rocks shall be parts of a great continent.... If we cultivate that sense of detachment from the present and of having our true affinities in the unseen, if we dwell here as strangers because our citizenship is in heaven, then death will not drag us away from our associates nor hunt us into a lonely land, but will bring us where closer bonds shall knit the "sweet societies" together, and the sheep shall couch close by one another because all gathered round the one Shepherd. Then many a tie shall be re-woven, and the solitary wanderer meet again the dear ones whom he had "loved long since and lost awhile."
—Alex. McLaren
Thoughts for the Quiet Hour.
Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, Isa. 30:18.
This is God's way. In the darkest hours of the night His tread draws near across the billows. As the day of execution is breaking, the angel comes to Peter's cell. When the scaffold for Mordecai is complete, the royal sleeplessness leads to a reaction in favor of the threatened race.
Ah, soul, it may have come to the worst with thee ere thou art delivered; but thou wilt be! God may keep thee waiting, but He will ever be mindful of His covenant, and will appear to fulfil His inviolable word.
—F. B. Meyer
Thoughts for the Quiet Hour.
He loveth our nation and he hath built us a synagogue. Luke 7:5.
Marble and granite are perishable monuments, and their inscriptions may be seldom read. Carve your names on human hearts; they alone are immortal!
—Theodore Cuyler
Thoughts for the Quiet Hour.
As many as I love I... chasten. Rev. 3:19.
I once saw a dark shadow resting on the bare side of a hill. Seeking its cause I saw a little cloud, bright as the light, floating in the clear blue above. Thus it is with our sorrow. It may be dark and cheerless here on earth; yet look above and you shall see it to be but a shadow of His brightness whose name is Love.
—Dean Alford
Thoughts for the Quiet Hour.
What means these stones? Josh. 4:21.
Ye also as living stones. 1 Pet. 2:5. (R. V.)
There should be something so remarkable, so peculiar about the life and conversation of a Christian that men should be compelled to ask, "What does this mean?"... Is there anything in your character, words, and habits of life so different from the world around you that men are involuntarily compelled to ask themselves or others, "What does this mean?" Not that there is to be a forced singularity, a peculiarity for the sake of being peculiar; that were merely to copy the pharisaism of ancient days.... Oh, that we might realize that this is the purpose for which God sends us into the world, as He sent His only begotten Son!
—S. A. Blackwood
Thoughts for the Quiet Hour.
All... saw his face as it had been the face of an angel Acts 6:15.
The face is made every day by its morning prayer, and by its morning look out of windows which open upon heaven.
—Joseph Parker
Thoughts for the Quiet Hour.
At the commandment of the Lord they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed. Num. 9:23.
This is the secret of peace and calm elevation. If as Israelite, in the desert, had taken it into his head to make some movement independent of Jehovah; if he took it upon him to move when the crowd was at rest, or to halt while the crowd was moving, we can easily see what the result would have been. And so it will ever be with us. If we move when we ought to rest, or rest when we ought to move, we shall not have the divine presence with us.
—C. H. Mackintosh
Thoughts for the Quiet Hour.
