It tells me of the Divine favour. “Lord, Thou hast been favourable to Thy land.” As I write these words, the sun has just slipped out from behind the cloud. It has been there all the time, but the ministry of the cloud was needed, and so it appeared as though there would be sun and spring no more. “Behind a frowning Providence He hides a smiling face.”
And it tells me of the Divine forgiveness. “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of Thy people.” Yes, when the sun appears, He loosens the frozen earth and streams, and turns the bondage into liberty. The soul that was imprisoned in freezing guilt attains a joyous freedom.
And it tells me of revival. “Wilt Thou not revive us again?” It is the next step in the returning spring. The sleeping, benumbed things will all awake! “The flowers appear on the earth.” Where grace reigns, graces spring! Forgiveness is attended by renewal, and the wilderness begins to “blossom like the rose.”
NOVEMBER The Sixteenth
THE MAKING OF A BRAVE MAN
Acts iv. 13-22.
ERE is a marvellous transformation! I have been wondering at the littleness of the denier, and now this same denier is making the world wonder by his majestic boldness! His one resource is now the risen Christ, and his one moral standard is “whether it be right!” Once he quailed before an accusing maid; now he stands undaunted before the rulers of the earth. How has it all come about?