Calendar:March 16th to April 15th.
DAILY BIBLE BEADING:…… March 16th, Micah 3; March 31st, Haggai 2; April 15th, Malachi 1.
MEMORY WORK……………….1 John 1:1-2:11
GOOD READING:-The Moral Glory of the Lord Jesus, by J. G. Bellett. (20 cents. at our publishers.)
MONTHLY QUESTION:-At what period of Israel's history, and under what circumstances, did Haggai and Zechariah minister?
Our Memory Work
One name more for successfully studying 1 Thessalonians.
Adelaide Potter…………….. Concord, Mass.
No names have been received thus far for 2 Thessalonians, but I hope many are on the way. Do not delay your final recitation, but get your name in as early as possible so that we can list the successful ones together.
This time we take up the Epistles of John. They are very precious, and full of the great theme of eternal life. This, in a special way, links with the Lord Jesus as manifested in His life down here, for in Him eternal life found its perfect display.
Let us apply ourselves perseveringly to the study of these epistles, and thus be supplied with food for our souls, and equipped for the conflict of faith.
Our Daily Bible Reading
Completing Micah, we read through Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and just commence Malachi. These prophets give us a wide range of subject matter.
Nahum deals with the Lord's judgment of Assyria, the great oppressor of His people. Ch. 1, First is the presentation of Jehovah as judge, then an appeal to Assyria, with a brief message of comfort to God's people interjected in vers. 12,13. Ch. 2, The Judge's action. Ch. 3, The complete ruin.
Habakkuk deals with the Chaldeans, their rise, characteristics, and final overthrow, while also emphasizing the special glory and power of Jehovah. In this prophet we may see beautifully expressed the spirit and attitude of faith in view of what he is called to declare. Zephaniah is more general, dealing with the condition of God's people as well as the coming judgments upon certain nations. Judah and Jerusalem are arraigned for idolatry and many sins, but future restoration promised.
The three last prophets are linked with the return of a remnant from Babylon under Ezra and Nehemiah. Haggai deals with God's house; Zechariah more directly with what relates to Jerusalem and its future; Malachi with the low moral and spiritual state of the people, showing that they had repeated the sad history of the nation in departing from the ways and will of Jehovah, although the worship of idols was not revived.
In reading these books let us seek to gather the great moral lessons of God's government, and learn of His ways in relation to the course of world-affairs.
CHRISTIAN CONDUCT
SOME PRACTICAL TOPICS FOR YOUNG CHRISTIANS
Patience and Forbearance
"Better is a patient spirit than a proud spirit."
"He that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly." Patience is the link between tribulation and experience. The former we find in connection with things which cross our path, and sometimes from persons with whom we are in relation, and very often both combine to give us trial. We all have to live and work with others, and it gives abundant opportunity to exercise patience. In the measure in which it is lacking, we lose in that experience which enriches spiritually, which develops self-mastery, good judgment, and increases our wisdom.
One thing which will greatly help us to exercise patience toward others, is a sober judgment of ourselves. By this I mean an honest appraisal of our own shortcomings, weakness, and oft-time failures; all of which, if considered in secret with the Lord who searches and tries the hearts, will produce humbleness of mind. Self-judgment and resultant humble-mindedness are the companions of patience and forbearance. We find in Scripture that lowliness, or humbleness of mind, precedes the exhortation to forbear and forgiveness of one another, for which it is an essential prerequisite.
To be proud is the very opposite of this-it is to be self-centered, boastful of one's own things, of high look and disdain of others, impatient of supposed deficiencies in others. The proud heart stirs up strife (Prov. 28:25; 13:10). "Lofty eyes, and the proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin" (Prov. 21:4, N. Trans.). "When pride cometh, then cometh shame; but with the lowly is wisdom." Wisdom says, "Pride do I hate." The wisdom which is from above is with the lowly, never with the proud; it is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be in treated, full of mercy and good fruits, without wrangling and without hypocrisy." Beautiful features of character are seen in the lowly. Such do nothing "in the spirit of strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, esteeming others as more excellent than themselves;" not puffed up with their own qualities, but valuing those of others.
The Spirit of God ever turns the hearts of the godly to the Lord Jesus, in whom all moral graces are found in perfection, that we may be more conformed to His likeness. So "let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus."
Endurance links closely with patience. But we may endure because there is no other way. To patiently endure as in obedience to, and as under the eyes of the Lord, is quite another thing. As children of God we are to be His imitators (Eph. 5:1) and He is called "the God of patience."
To these thoughts we may couple "longsuffering" as the apostle does in Col. 1:11. He linked it, too, with lowliness and meekness, as connected parts in the Spirit's precious fruits.
The first feature of the Spirit's fruit is love, and of it we read:"Love has long patience, is kind; . . .love is not insolent or rash; is not puffed up, does not behave in an unseemly manner, does not seek what is its own, is not quickly provoked."May we "keep ourselves in the love of God" as Jude speaks; our hearts directed into it, as Paul desires.
"Be patient towards all."
How long? We are not told. Should we put a limit where God has put none? Consider His longsuffering with you and what then will you say!
We have said patience links with experience, as well as tribulation. How much of experience we may gather if we but patiently endure? How much we may learn of God and ourselves in connection with what we bear and forbear, which must be lost to us if we meet things with impatience, or pride, instead of humility and self-judgment.
Patience and forbearance are needed at home, at school, in business, even in our amusements, and in fellowship with God's people. Often it is in the little things and among the nearest and dearest to us that we need to learn how to exercise them and subdue our spirit. Like many other things, they should be assiduously practiced at home, for it is in those daily circumstances that what we truly are is manifested.
"Let patience have her perfect work."
In temperance or self-control, Peter exhorts us to have "patience." These, too, usually go together; for when trials assail, then is the time and need for patience, that the fruits of trial may be realized.
Young Believers' Meetings
Since my return home last November, and in the course of ministry in the vicinity of New York, I have enjoyed with profit and pleasure meetings with from 20 to 30 young believers who assemble together every Saturday evening for study of the Word; and a brief season of social intercourse afterwards. Those attending come from Brooklyn, New York, Jersey City, Passaic and Plainfield, nearly all are in fellowship. One is rejoiced to see soberness, interest and liberty on these occasions.
A similar gathering is held at Detroit, or vicinity, and while I have not had the privilege of being with them, I receive a detailed stenographic report of each meeting which gives one confidence that profit and help must be derived by those who attend.
There are other meetings concerning which I can bear similar testimony.
"WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION"