Divine Purpose of Affliction

Affliction, in some of its many and varied forms, is the lot of all the Lord's people. Indeed, if we do not have it, then we lack evidence of our true sonship, for the Father chastens every son whom He receives. Every believer is refined in the furnace of affliction.

To every follower of Jesus, how strong is the consolation flowing from this truth. God's afflictions are loving and parental towards His redeemed people; whereas towards His enemies, they are judicial and punitive. God refines His saints in the furnace of affliction, for their purification; but He places the ungodly in the furnace, for their destruction. The believer can welcome and patiently bear sickness, bereavement, and poverty; knowing that God's fatherly chastisements are not judgments, and His afflictions are not condemnations.

The furnace of affliction is needed in the process of sanctification:  to consume the dross which adheres so closely to the precious ore, to purify the heart, to center the affections on Jesus, and to wean the soul from enticements of this vain world.

The hour of affliction is the hour of softening, where: the hardness of the heart yields, the callousness of the spirit gives way, the affections become heavenly, and the conscience is made more tender. It is a season of holy meditation, of prayer, and of withdrawal from the world and from creature delights; while the soul is more closely shut in with Jesus.

Through these trials, the Holy Spirit comforts the afflicted soul by unfolding the deep and unchangeable love of Jesus, showing the believer that his sorrow is the fruit of Divine love, sent to draw the soul nearer to Himself. The Comforter opens the believer's ears to hear the voice of God's chastening rod, causing the disciplined heart to return from its wanderings and seek the wounded, bleeding, suffering Savior more eagerly than ever. In the furnace of affliction, the believer attains a deeper knowledge of God's all-sufficiency, and a truer knowledge of his own spiritual poverty and unworthiness.

In each season of affliction, the believer must turn from all creature sympathy, and look to Jesus, who was preeminently the man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief and suffering; making Him able to sustain and sympathize with His afflicted people.

In every stormy wind, in every darksome night, and in every rising fear, the voice of Jesus is heard saying, "Take courage, it is I! Do not be afraid. Your affliction did not spring out of the ground but came down from above; a heaven-sent blessing clad in a robe of ebony, sent entirely in love."

As you grow deeper into the loving heart of Jesus: sorrow shall wound you less deeply, affliction shall press you less heavily, and tribulation shall affect you less keenly.

[Octavius Winslow]

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Isaiah 48:10 ...  Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

Romans 8:28 ... And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

2 Corinthians 4:17 ... For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; ❤

Let Us Fix Our Eyes on Jesus!

We cannot keep our eyes too exclusively or too intently fixed on Jesus. All salvation is in Him. All salvation proceeds from Him. All salvation leads to Him. And for the assurance and comfort of our salvation, we are to repose believingly and entirely on Him. Christ must be all! Christ the beginning, Christ the center, Christ the end. 

Oh, sweet truth to you who are sensible of your spiritual poverty, vileness, and insufficiency, and of the ten thousand flaws and failures of which, perhaps, no one is cognizant but God and your own soul! 

Oh, the blessedness to turn from self, and rest in Christ: a full Christ, a loving Christ, a tender Christ, whose heart's love never chills, from whose eye darts no reproof, from whose lips breathes no sentence of condemnation! 

[Octavius Winslow]

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Hebrews 12:2 ... Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

1 Corinthians 15:28 ... And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Jude 21 ... And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.❤

Near At Hand!!

Christian! God is near at hand whenever you approach Him in prayer. 

Oh, comforting truth! You have a God at hand to listen to the softest breath of prayer, to listen to every confession of sin, to listen to every cry of need, to listen to every utterance of sorrow, to listen to every wail of woe, to listen to every appeal for counsel, strength, and support! 

Arise, O my soul! and give yourself to prayer for God is near at hand to hear and answer you! 

[Octavius Winslow]

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Psalm 6:9 ... The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer.

Proverbs 15:29 ... The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.

Jeremiah 33:3 ... Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. ❤

Purifying Fires of Christ's Furnace!

O my soul, what deep need is there for this refining and purifying of your Lord what inward corruption, what carnality, what worldliness, what self-seeking, what creature idolatry, what God dishonoring unbelief! All these imperatively demand the searching, burning, purifying fires of Christ's furnace! 

My soul, your Refiner and Purifier is Jesus! It is a consolatory thought that our refining is in the hands of Jesus - in the hands that were pierced for us on the cross! Jesus shapes all your trials! Jesus sends all your afflictions! Jesus mixes all your sorrows! Jesus shapes and balances all the clouds of your pilgrimage! Jesus prepares and heats the furnace that refines you as silver and purifies you as gold! 

Then, O my soul, tremble not at the knife that wounds you, at the flame that scorches you, at the cloud that shades you, at the billows that surge above you. Jesus is in it all, and you are as safe as though you had reached the blissful climate where the vine needs no pruning, and where the ore needs no purifying, where the sky is never darkened, and upon whose golden sands where no storms of adversity ever blow, or waves of sorrow ever break. Mark the Refiner's position. "He will SIT as a refiner and purifier of silver." (Malachi 3:3)

It would be fatal to his purpose, if the human refiner were to leave his post while the liquid mass was seething in the cauldron. But there he patiently sits, watching and tempering the flame, and removing the refuse and the dross as it floats upon the surface of the molten ore. Just so, Christ sits as a Refiner and with an eye that never slumbers, and with a patience that never wearies, and with a love that never chills, and with a faithfulness that never falters, He watches and controls the process that purifies our hearts, burnishes our graces, sanctifies our nature, and impresses more vividly His own image of loveliness upon our soul. If He places you in the fire, He will bring you through the fire, "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it is tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:7)

But sweet and soothing are the truth that the believer is not alone in the fire! The Refiner is with us, as with the three Hebrew children passing through the king's burning furnace. The Lord will have us be polished stones. As some believers are more rusty and some more alloyed than others they need a rougher file, and a hotter furnace! 

This may account for the great severity of trial through which some of the Lord's precious jewels are called to pass. Not less dear to His heart, are they for this refining. Look up, my soul, to your Refiner! The knife is in a father's hand! The flame is under a Savior's control! Be still, be humble, be submissive. 

[Octavius Windslow] 

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Micah 6:9 ... The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

Zechariah 13:9 ... And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

Job 23:10 ... But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. ❤

Delivered For You!!

Who delivered up Jesus to die? 

Not Judas, for money. 

Not Pilate, for fear. 

Not the Jews, for envy. 

But the Father, for love!

[Octavius Winslow]

Romans 8:32 ...  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Romans 4:25 ... Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Luke 9:44 ...  Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men.

Acts 2:23-24 ... Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. ❤

The Most Precious Spot!

Take your place with Mary near to the cross of Jesus. There meet and blend suffering-and love, sorrow and sympathy. Standing in faith near the cross you are near the suffering Savior, the loving Son, the sympathizing Brother born for your present grief. Jesus, in the depth and tenderness of His love, is at this moment all that He was when, in soul travail. He cast that ineffable look of filial love and sympathy upon His anguished mother. 

Likewise, He can enter into your circumstances, understand your grief, and sustain and soothe your spirit as one only can, who has partaken of the cup of woe which now trembles in your hand. Drink that cup submissive to His will for He drank deeply of it before you and has left the fragrance of His sympathy upon its brim. Your sorrow is not new to Christ. Stand close to the cross of Jesus! It is the most accessible and precious spot on this side of Heaven, the most solemn and awesome spot on this side of eternity! 

The cross of Jesus is the focus of divine love, divine sympathy, and divine power. Stand by it in suffering, in persecution, and in temptation. Stand by it in the brightness of prosperity and in the gloom of adversity. Go to Christ's cross in trouble, repair to it in weakness, cling to it in danger, and hide beneath it when the wintry storm rushes fiercely over you. Near to the cross, you are near your Father's heart, and your Savior's side you seem to enter the gate of Heaven to stand beneath the vestibule of glory! 

Nothing but love will welcome your approach to the cross of Jesus divine love that pardons all your sins, flows over all your unworthiness, heals all your soul-wounds, soothes all your sorrows, and will shelter you within its blessed pavilion until earth is exchanged for Heaven, and you lay down the warrior's sword for the victor's palm, and spring from the foot of the cross to the foot of the throne to be forever with your precious Lord! 

[Octavius Winslow] 

John 19:25 ... Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.

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Behold, His Precious Gift!!

Look at the cross! Behold His precious Gift transfixed to it, and that by His own hand, and for your sins! Then look at your present circumstances, survey your needs, your trials, your chastisements, your bereavements, your heart-sickening, heart-breaking tribulations, and know that God still is love. 

If He had love strong enough, deep enough, to give you Jesus; to tear Him, as it were, from His bosom, and to transfix Him on yonder accursed tree for your iniquities; has He not love enough to bow His ear to your cry, and His heart to your sorrow? Will He not rescue you from this difficulty, deliver you out of this trouble, shield you in this temptation, supply this need, support and comfort you in this grief? 

Oh yes, He will! Doubt it not! The cross of Calvary is a standing pledge; standing until sin and guilt, need and woe shall be known no more; that God, who "spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, will with Him also freely give us all things" necessary to our good, and promotive of His glory. 

[Octavius Winslow]

Romans 8:32 ... He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

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A Worldly Christianity!!

Professor of the gospel! guard against the world; it is your undoing! Watch against conformity to it in your dress, in your mode of living, in the education of your children, in the principles, motives, and policy that govern you. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by any known inconsistency of conduct, any sinful conformity to the world, any inordinate pursuit of its wealth, its honors, its pleasures, its friendships, and its great things. 

Pray against the sin of covetousness, that canker worm that feeds at the root of so many souls! Pray against the love of dress, that sin that diverts the mind of so many professors from the simplicity of Christ and takes the eye off from the true adornment! Pray against a thirst for light and trifling reading, that strange and sinful inconsistency of so many, the certain tendency of which is to starve the life of God in the soul, to engender a distaste for spiritual nourishment, for the Word of God, for holy meditation, and for Divine communion and fellowship. Yes, pray against the spirit of worldly, sinful conformity in everything! 

Reader! are you a professing Christian? Then guard against a worldly Christianity a Christianity that wears a fair exterior, so far as it is composed of church attendance, but which excludes from it the cross of the meek and lowly Lamb of God—a Christianity which loves the world and the things of the world, "makes a fair show in the flesh," speaks well of Christ, and yet betrays Him with a kiss. Oh, awful state! oh, fearful deception! oh, fatal delusion! The world is the sworn enemy of your Savior; let it not be your friend. No; come out of it and be separate. 

[Octavius Winslow] 

Romans 12:2 ... And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

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Low Views of Yourself?

What are you to yourself? worthless? vile? empty? 

What is Jesus to you? precious? lovely? all your salvation? all your desire? 

What is sin to you? the most hateful thing in the world? 

What is holiness to you? most lovely? most longed for? 

What is the throne of grace to you? the most attractive spot? 

What is the cross to you? the sweetest resting place in the universe? 

What is God to you? your God? your Father? the spring of all your joys? the fountainhead of all your bliss? the center where your affections meet? 

Is it so? Then you are a child of God! 

Those low views of yourself that brokenness, that inward mourning, that secret confession, that longing for more spirituality, more grace, more devotedness, more love, does but prove the existence, reality, and growth of God's work within you. Cheer up, precious soul! That soul never perished, that felt itself to be vile, and Jesus to be precious! 

[Octavius Winslow]

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Psalm 51:17 ... The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Psalm 138:6 ... Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

Isaiah 1:18 ... Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.❤

Lean Hard!!

It is by an act of simple, prayerful faith we transfer our cares and anxieties, our sorrows and needs, to the Lord. Jesus invites you to come and lean upon Him, and to lean with all your might upon that arm that balances the universe, and upon that bosom that bled for you upon the soldier's spear! 

But you doubtingly ask, "Is the Lord able to do this thing for me?" And thus, while you are debating a matter about which there is not the shadow of a shade of doubt, the burden is crushing your gentle spirit to the dust. And all the while Jesus stands at your side and lovingly says, "Cast your burden upon Me and I will sustain you. I am God Almighty. I bore the load of your sin and condemnation up the steep of Calvary, and the same power of omnipotence, and the same strength of love that bore it all for you then, is prepared to bear your need and sorrow now. Roll it all upon Me! Child of My love! Lean hard! Let Me feel the pressure of your care. I know your burden, child! I shaped it I poised it in My own hand and made no proportion of its weight to your unaided strength. For even as I laid it on, I said I shall be near, and while she leans on Me, this burden shall be Mine, not hers. So shall I keep My child within the encircling arms of My own love. Here lay it down! Do not fear to impose it on a shoulder which upholds the government of worlds! Yet closer come! You are not near enough! I would embrace your burden, so I might feel My child reposing on My breast. You love Me! I know it. Doubt not, then. But, loving me, lean hard!" 

[Octavius Winslow] 

Psalm 55:22 ... Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

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True Happiness!!

Happiness is the magic charm that the world is eagerly in search of. But the believer in Christ is its only possessor. He has found it and found it in Jesus. He has found it in a renunciation of self-righteousness, and in a humble reception of Jesus. There is no true happiness outside of Jesus! What true happiness can the heart feel while it is spiritually dead, its sins are unpardoned, it is under condemnation, and exposed to the wrath of a holy and just God? 

Oh reader, do not dream of happiness, until you have gone as a repenting sinner to the cross of Christ! You may be a son or a daughter of affliction. In this furnace you may be chosen, and through this furnace, it may be the Lord's holy will that you should pass all your days. You may be a child of poverty, possessing but little of this world's comforts and you feel lonely, neglected, and despised. 

Yet oh, look up Christian! You are precious in God's sight! You are as dear to Him as the pupil of His eye. His heart yearns over you with more than a mother's exquisite fondness for her child, because He has loved you with an everlasting love! And to the praise of the glory of His grace, He has accepted you in the Beloved. Realize this, and though rough and thorny your path may be, and fiery your furnace, and deep your poverty, and lonely your situation you shall experience a peace and a happiness to which the world around you is an utter stranger. 

[Octavious Winslow] 

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John 14:27 ... Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Psalm 1:1-2 ... Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. ❤

Lean Hard!!

It is by an act of simple prayerful faith, that we transfer our cares and anxieties, our sorrows and needs to the Lord. Jesus invites you to come and lean upon Him, and to lean with all you might upon that arm that balances the universe, and upon that bosom that bled for you upon the soldier's spear! But you doubtingly ask, "Is the Lord able to do this thing for me?" And thus, while you are debating a matter about which there is not the shadow of a shade of doubt the burden is crushing your gentle spirit to the dust! And all the while Jesus stands at your side and lovingly says: Cast your burden upon Me, and I will sustain you. I am God Almighty. I bore the load of your sin and condemnation up the steep of Calvary, and the same power of omnipotence, and the same strength of love that bore it all for you then is prepared to bear your need and sorrow now. Roll it all upon Me! 

"Child of My Love! Lean hard! Let Me feel the pressure of your care. I know your burden, child! I shaped and formed it in My own hand and made no proportion of its weight to your unaided strength. For even as I laid it on, I said, 'I shall be near;' and while you lean on Me, this burden shall be Mine, not yours. So shall I keep My child within the circling arms of My own love.  Here, lay it down!  Do not fear to impose it on a shoulder which upholds the government of worlds! Yet closer come you are not near enough! I would embrace your burden, so I might feel My child reposing on My bosom. You love Me! I know it. Doubt not, then. But, loving Me, lean hard!"

[Octavius Winslow] 

Psalm 55:22 ... Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

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"Fruit"

An unconverted state will bear fruit corresponding with its own essence. It must, in the nature of things, be so. The enmity against God of the carnal mind, the rejection of the Lord Jesus, the governing principle of SELF, the supreme ascendancy of the world, the slavery of sin; indicate, unmistakably, the unrenewed, unregenerate nature from which they spring. We do not expect one to yield the fruits of holiness from an unholy nature. 

The life that an unbeliever lives is in keeping with the unrenewed heart he possesses. He is of the earth, earthly. It is consistent with his unregenerate nature that he should be of the world, that he should love the world, that the world should love him and claim him as its own, that the things of the world its pursuits, its pleasures, its sins; should harmonize with his nature, charm his tastes, delight his senses, and bind his affections in their spell. 

[Octavius Winslow]

Matthew 7:16-18 ... Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. ❤

The only thing that makes you differ!

Christian! The only thing that makes you differ from the most debauched being that pollutes the earth, or from the vilest fiend that gnaws his chains in Hell, is the free grace of God! 

[Octavius Winslow]

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1 Corinthians 4:7 ... For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? 

1 Corinthians 15:10 ...  But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. ❤

The God of Light!

Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is to behold the sun. In what believing heart will not these words awaken a quick and grateful response? The renewed man is the only being who knows what true light is, because he only, really knows Jesus. All others are like miners dwelling from their birth beneath the surface of the earth, having never seen the sun, through whose eternal gloom not one vivifying ray has ever pierced. "Darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people." (Isaiah 60:2)

When man sinned, God went out of the temple, luminous and glorious with His presence, and the sun of the soul set in guilt, darkness, and death. Henceforth the natural man walks in darkness, not knowing where he goes, until the time of electing love and sovereign grace draws on, when He who at creation's dawn said, "Let there be light, and light was," (Genesis 1:3) causes the light of life to shine, and the soul is immediately "translated out of darkness into His marvelous light," (1 Peter 2:9) henceforth and forever to be a child of the light and of the day. "You were once darkness, but now are you light in the Lord Walk as children of light." (Ephesians 5:8)

But the present pages have more especially to do with God Himself as the God of light. We are invited to consider, less the reflection and effects of God's light, than the Divine Fountain from which it flows. 

[Octavius Winslow]

1 John 1:5 ... This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. ❤

Lord, I Am a Poor, Blind Child!

Jesus leads those who are burdened, and need a skillful, sure and gentle shepherd. Our journey to Heaven is across a waste howling wilderness, through an enemy's country all armed and combined to resist, dispute, and oppose our every step. It is a road, also, all untraveled and unknown. Over the entrance of every new path is written, "You have not passed this way before!" 

A new bend in our life transpires, a new path in our pilgrimage is presented involving new duties and responsibilities, new cares and trials. And with fear and trembling we gird ourselves for the new cloud-veiled pilgrimage which God in His goodness has appointed us. But why these doubts, these trembling's, these fears? 

Jesus is our Leader! He knows all the way we take has mapped every road and has appointed every path. As a Teacher, He leads us into all truth. As a Captain, He leads us from victory to victory. As a Shepherd, He leads us into green pastures. As a Guide, He leads us along our difficult path skillfully, gently, and safely. 

How does Jesus lead us? He leads us graciously. He leads us along all the stages, and through all the exercises of our Christian experience not leaving us when our frames are low, and our faith is assailed, and darkness, often thick darkness, covers our soul. Who could skillfully, patiently, and faithfully lead us along all the mazes, intricacies, and perils of our Christian course, safely to glory but Christ our Leader? 

Commit yourself, O my soul, confidently to the Lord's leading. The way may appear all wrong to you, but it is the right way. Mystery may enshroud it, trials may pave it, sorrows may darken it, tears may bedew it nevertheless He is leading you by the right way home. "Lord, I am a poor, blind child not knowing my way. And when I do see it, I am often so burdened that I cannot walk. Take me by the hand, and gently, skillfully lead me until traveling days are over, and I am at home with You forever! You have promised gently to lead the burdened and feeble who cannot keep up with the flock. Lord, lead ME!" 

[Octavius Winslow] 

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Isaiah 42:16 ... And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

Isaiah 40:11 ...  He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

Psalm 31:3 ... For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me. ❤

Weaned and Divorced From Creature Help!

It is sweet to lean upon one we love: hanging upon His arm for support and reclining upon His bosom for sympathy; one on whose wisdom we can unhesitatingly rely, in whose love we can confidently repose. Transfer this thought to God! How unutterable the blessedness, how vast the privilege, and how happy the result of waiting upon Him who stands to us in the relation of our Father and Redeemer, our brother and Friend. waiting the movement of His pillar of cloud; waiting the supply of His inexhaustible providence; waiting the comfort of His unchanging love; waiting for the fulfillment of the word of promise upon which He has caused our soul to hope! 

"My soul waits on the Lord." 

There does not exist a more privileged and holy condition of the soul, than that of being entirely cast upon God. When the created arm fails to sustain, and the human heart to love; when earthly props give way, and affection and sympathy have fled their last asylum; when the barrel of meal is well-near exhausted, and the cruse of oil distills its last drop oh then to exclaim, "My soul, wait only upon God; for my expectation is from Him." (Psalm 62:5) This is a privilege indeed, a privilege eclipsing all others! 

Oh, count it the richest experience of the divine life when thus weaned and divorced from creature help, you are brought to wait only on the Lord, exclaiming, Now I have no prop, no supply, no sympathy, no comfort but that which I find in Jehovah. I am shut up to Infinity alone! "My help comes from the Lord." (Psalm 121:2)

The gracious soul hangs in faith upon God: upon the veracity of God to fulfill His promise, upon the power of God to help him in difficulty, upon the wisdom of God to counsel him in perplexity, upon the love of God to shield him in danger, upon the Omniscience of God to guide him with His eye, and upon the Omnipresence of God to cheer him with His presence at all times and in all places, his Sun and his Shield. 

Oh, have faith in God! The moment the soul can believingly repose upon Him, it ceases to be the sport of every wind and wave of circumstance and doubt and drops its anchor on the firm and immovable bedrock of DIVINITY! 

[Octavius Winslow]

Psalm 33:20 ... Our soul waiteth for the Lord: he is our help and our shield.

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The Nearness of God

More saints than Luther have felt a personal interest in the forty-sixth Psalm "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble;" thus drinking with him of the "river the streams whereof make glad the city of God." (Psalm 46:1,4) 

My soul, are you not one of them? Has not your praiseful exclamation often been, "You are NEAR, O Lord!" God is everywhere, but it is only His own children who forcibly feel, and gratefully acknowledge, and holily exhibit, not His omniscience only, but his especial and personal presence. Look at this precious truth, my soul, in connection with two or three features of your varied experience. He is a God at hand in the person of Christ. The Lord Jesus brings God very near to us. He is not only the revealed One of God, but He is in His own person really and absolutely God "He who has seen Me, has seen the Father." (John 14:9)

Could a mere creature, a man only, say this? Impossible, with any truth, and without blasphemy. Oh, how near to us has Jesus brought the Father! Come to Jesus, look at Jesus, listen to Jesus, and realize that in so doing you approach to, gaze upon, and hear the voice of, God your Father in heaven. God is near in the work of Jesus. The blood brings us sinners near to God, as it brings a sin-pardoning God near to us. "You that were afar off are made near by the blood of Christ." (Ephesians 2:13)

See then your true and present standing, O my soul! Nothing comes between you and God but the atoning blood of Jesus. His blood annihilates all your sin and guilt. Robed in His imputed righteousness, you are to God nearer than the highest angel in heaven and nearer you cannot be, and God draws near to you and speaks "A God at hand, says the Lord." (Mark 1:15)

God is near at hand when you do approach Him in prayer. Oh, comforting truth! A God at hand to hear the softest breath of prayer to listen to every confession of sin to every cry of need to every utterance of sorrow to every wail of woe to every appeal for counsel, strength, and support. 

Arise, O my soul! and give yourself to prayer; for God is near at hand to hear and answer you. Listen to His word, "Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto Me? says the Lord." "You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness, those who remember You in Your ways."  A God at hand is He in every time of trouble. "A very present help." Not far have you to travel for the guidance and deliverance you need. If forsaking the Lord your God you go down into 'Egypt' for help, and trust in the chariots and horses thereof, then will you be ashamed of your confidence. But why fly to creature help, when the Lord your God is near unto you in all that you call upon Him for? 

Cease from man; for God in Christ is very near, and one step of believing prayer will bring you to His feet. Oh, live as in His presence! Be your life a life of communion, doing and enduring, toiling and suffering, as beholding Him who is invisible. In a little while we shall pass from our partial and imperfect realizations of His presence when on earth, to enjoy His full, unclouded, and eternal presence in heaven! Then shall our eyes see the King in His full unveiled beauty, not as now, through a glass darkly, but then face to face. And, oh transporting thought! we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Guard vigilantly and strive prayerfully against that which creates a conscious distance between God and your soul. Is it the world? come out of it. Is it the creature? relinquish it. Is it the flesh? mortify it. Is it sin? forsake it. Is it unbelief? nail it to the cross. 

Oh, let nothing separate you from Christ no earthly good or carnal delight cause a distance, or coldness, or shyness between God and your soul. Give Jesus your undivided heart, and let God be your all in all. Then shall your happy experience be "You are NEAR, O Lord." 

[Octavius Winslow] 

Jeremiah 23:23 ... Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?

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The Absolute Necessity of Experimental Religion!

The religion of the Lord Jesus is valuable only as its power is experienced in the heart. In this respect, and in this only, it may be compared to the physical sciences, which, however ingenious in structure, or beautiful in theory yet, if not reduced or reducible to purposes of practical use, are of little worth. 

It is so with the truth of Jesus. The man of mere taste may applaud its external beauty, the philosopher may admire its ethics, the orator may admire its eloquence, and the poet may admire its sublimity but if the Spirit of God does not take His own truth, and impress it upon the heart, as to the great design of its revelation it avails nothing! 

What numbers there are who rest in the mere 'theory' of Christianity! But as a practical principle they know nothing of it. As a thing experienced in the heart it is a hidden mystery to them. They speak well of Christianity as a religious system; they believe its Divinity, and even defend its doctrines and extol its precepts yet make no approaches towards a personal and practical obedience to its claims. 

In a word, they know nothing of repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. It will surely appear to a spiritually enlightened mind, a subject of vast and solemn importance that this delusion should be exposed that this foundation of sand should be undermined; and that the absolute necessity of experimental religion, as necessary to an admission within the kingdom of glory, be strenuously and scripturally enforced! 

[Octavius Winslow] 

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2 Thessalonians 2:10 ...  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

 1 Thessalonians 1:5 ... For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. ❤

The Buzzing of a Fly!!

Look at that flower! It neither toils nor spins and why? Because your Heavenly Father clothes it! Look at that bird! Leaping from bow to bow, springing from hill to valley, sparkling with beauty, gushing with song, and wild with ecstatic delight! It has not a thought or care of its own and why? Because God thinks and cares for it. 

Oh, you of little faith! Why do you hesitate to trust all your personal interests, to confide all your worldly affairs, to disclose all your temporal needs and sorrows in prayer to God? He is not too high for your lowest need nor too great for your smallest care. 

"If the buzzing of a fly troubles me," says John Newton, "I may take it to God." This is not mere sentiment. It is the practical embodiment of a principle of experimental religion most honoring to God and sanctifying to us the principle of faith, which acknowledges God in all our ways, sees God in everything, and takes everything, the smallest, to God. 

[Octavius Winslow] 

Matthew 6:26-32 ... Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

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