Have you prayed and prayed, and waited and waited, and still you see no evidence of an answer? Are you tired of seeing no movement? Are you at the point of giving up? Then perhaps you have not waited in the right way, which removes you from the right place—the place where the Lord can meet you.

“Wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:25). Patience eliminates worry. The Lord said He would come, and His promise is equal to His presence.

Patience eliminates weeping. Why feel sad and discouraged? He knows your needs better than you do, and His purpose in waiting is to receive more glory through it.

Patience eliminates self-works. “The work of God is this: to believe” (John 6:29), and once you believe, you may know all is well.

Patience eliminates all want. Perhaps your desire to receive what you want is stronger than your desire for the will of God to be fulfilled.

Patience eliminates all weakness. Instead of thinking of waiting as being wasted time, realize that God is preparing His resources and strengthening you as well.

Patience eliminates all wobbling. “He touched me and raised me to my feet” (Daniel 8:18). God’s foundations are steady, and when we have His patience within, we are steady while we wait.

Patience yields worship. Sometimes the best part of praiseful waiting is experiencing “great endurance and patience . . . giving joyful thanks” (Colossians 1:11–12).

While you wait, “let [all these aspects of] patience have her perfect work” (James 1:4 KJV), and you will be greatly enriched. C. H. P.

Hold steady when the fires burn,

When inner lessons come to learn,

And from this path there seems no turn—

“Let patience have her perfect work.”

L. S. P.

General Gordon regretted that no one had told him when he was a young man that there was a Holy Spirit which he could possess and which could possess him. The knowledge would have saved him weakness, and sorrow , and loss. But when the later loneliness came, Gordon knew the inner strengthening of the Spirit. A power not his own came to his help. He was “strengthened with all power” (Colossians 1:1 1).

This is the apostle’ s sense of the magnitude of the Spirit. There is nothing we can need at any time of pressure, whether of duty or of danger , of temptation or of anxiety , but the Divine Ally will make Himself the resource of the soul to meet and endure the strain.

The apostle urges that the utmost room should be made for the Spirit; that a man possess the Divine gift in its utmost measur e. He seems to suggest that there are degrees of possession; there are measurements we make, limitations we impose, and in his eager way he urges that we make the utmost room for the Spirit’ s fullness. Do not go in for small measur es; do not restrict your allowance. The gift of the Spirit is not on a rationing basis. Do not confine yourself to mean and petty degrees of the Spirit. “Be filled with the Spirit.” There is no surfeit here, nor need there be any restriction. “T HE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN ” BY JOHN MACBEATH

There are deep things of God. Push out fr om shor e,

Hast thou found much? Give thanks and look for mor e.

Dost fear the gener ous Giver to offend?

Then know His stor e of bounty hath no end.

He doth not need to be implor ed or teased;

The mor e we take the better He is pleased.

Beside the common inheritanc e of the land, there are some special possessions. A. B. S IMPSON

“Have ye r eceived the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” (Acts 19:2 KJV)

What a contrast there is between a barren desert and the luxuriant oasis with its waving palms and its glorious verdure! Between gaunt and hungry flocks and the herds that lie down in green pastures and beside the still waters; between the viewless plain and the mountain height with its “land of far distances.”

What a difference there is between the aridity of an artificial, irrigated, stinted existence—a desert existence—and a life of abundant rains, crowding vegetation, and harvests that come almost of themselves— the abundant life!

The former is like the shallow stream where your boat every moment touches bottom or strikes some hidden rock; the latter is where your deep keel never touches ground, and you ride the ocean’ s wildest swells!

There are some Christians who always seem to be kept on scant measure. Their spiritual garment s are threadbare, their whole bearing that of people who are poverty-stricken and kept on short allowance—h ard up, and on the ragged edge of want and bankruptcy . They come through “by the skin of their teeth” and are “saved so as by fire.”

There are other souls who “have life . . . to the full.” Their love “alw ays protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” and “never fails” (1 Corin thians 13:7, 8). Their patience has “longsuf fering with joyfulness” (Colossians 1:11 KJV). Their peace “transcends all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). Their joy is “inexpressible and glorious” (1 Peter 1:8). Their service is so free and glad that duty is a delight. In a word, this life reaches out into the infinite as well as the eternal, sailing on the shoreless and fathomless seas of God and His infinite grace.

Oh, wher e is such a life to be found? How can the desert place be made to bring forth life to the full?

“Oh, wher e is the sea?” the fishes cried, As they swam the crystal waters thr ough “We have hear d from of old of the ocean tide, And we long to look on the waters blue. The wise ones speak of the infinite sea— Oh, who can tell us if such ther e be?”

Are we who live in the sea of the infinite to imitate those silly fishes, and ask, “Wher e is the God who is ‘not far from every one of us,’ who may be in our inmost hearts by faith, and in whom ‘we live, and move, and have our being’?” (Acts 17:27–28 KJV). D EAN FARRAR

“Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea?” (Job 38:16).

The psalmist said: “With you is the fountain of life” (Psalm 36:9). “All my fountains are in you” (Psalm 87:7).

Gushing Fountains!

It is the Lord : let him do what seemeth him good.—Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.—The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord .—What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?

Jesus wept.—A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.

Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.—Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.—In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For when I am weak, then am I strong.

When (Peter) saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power.

My brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.

The gospel of Christ . . . is the power of God unto salvation.

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.

Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power.—As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.—Trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord , that he might be glorified.—Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.—Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

Fight the good fight of faith.—In nothing terrified by your adversaries.