The angel did not give Elijah a vision, or explain the Scriptures to him, or do anything remarkable; he told Elijah to do the most ordinary thing, viz., to get up and eat.

If we were never depressed we should not be alive; it is the nature of a crystal never to be depressed. A human being is capable of depression, otherwise there would be no capacity for exaltation.

There are things that are calculated to depress, things that are of the nature of death; and in taking an estimate of yourself, always take into account the capacity for depression.

When the Spirit of God comes He does not give us visions, He tells us to do the most ordinary things conceivable.

Depression is apt to turn us away from the ordinary commonplace things of God's creation, but whenever God comes, the inspiration is to do the most natural simple thing - the things we would never have imagined God was in, and as we do them we find He is there.

The inspiration which comes to us in this way is an initiative against depression; we have to do the next thing and do it in the inspiration of God.

If we do a thing in order to overcome depression, we deepen the depression; but if the Spirit of God makes us feel intuitively that we must do the thing, and we do it, the depression is gone.

Immediately we arise and obey, we enter on a higher plane of life.

God does not chide His tired child when that weariness is a result of toil for Him: “I know . . . your hard work” (Revelation 2:2)—the Greek is “labor to weariness.” And what happened? “All at once an angel touched him.” There is no wilderness without its angels. Though Elijah knew it not, angels guarded him round about in his blackest depression and were actually placing bread and water at his head while he was asking for death.

A man may have to cry in the midst of an apostate community, “I am the only one left” (1 Kings 19:10); but he is always companied by legions of holy angels. But more than that. Who is this angel? It is the Angel of the Lord, the Jehovah Angel; the One who, centuries later in Gethsemane, had to have an angel to strengthen Him. He touched His exhausted child. Blessed exhaustion that can bring such a touch!

As the psalmist has said (Psalm 127:2), He giveth to His beloved while they sleep. And God does not chide His tired child.

Dear child, God does not say today, “Be strong”; He knows your strength is spent; He knows how long The road has been, how weary you have grown, For He who walked the earthly roads alone, Each bogging lowland, and each rugged hill, Can understand, and so He says, “Be still, And know that I am God.” The hour is late, And you must rest awhile, and you must wait Until life’s empty reservoirs fill up As slow rain fills an empty upturned cup. Hold up your cup, dear child, for God to fill. He only asks today that you be still.

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. REVELATION 2:2–3

Our Lord took His apostles aside when they were fatigued, and said, “Let us rest awhile.” He never drove His overtired faculties. When tired, He “sat down by the well.” He used to go and rest in the home of Martha and Mary after the fatigue of working in Jerusalem. The Scripture shows it was His custom. He tells us all—you, and me, and all—to let tomorrow take care of itself, and merely to meet the evil of the present day.

As Elijah slept under a juniper tree, an angel touched him and said, “Arise and eat” (1 Kings 19:5 KJV). God had sent His wearied servant to sleep. In his overwrought condition sleep was his greatest need, and it is precisely under such conditions that sleep is often wooed in vain. Are we ever astonished at the miracle of sleep? Remember you have to do with the same God who ministered to Elijah, and Though thy way be long and dreary, Eagle strength He’ll still renew.

Real foresight consists in reserving our own forces. If we labor with anxiety about the future, we destroy that strength which will enable us to meet the future. If we take more in hand now than we can well do, we break up, and the work is broken up with us.

Bakers of bread for others to eat must be very careful to husband their strength. They are not much seen, but much felt; unknown multitudes would feel their loss, and their failing means others famishing.

We need to take lessons of Sir William Cecil, once Lord Mayor of London. Upon throwing off his gown at night he would say to it, “Lay there, Lord Treasurer!” and forget all the cares of State until he resumed his official garb in the morning. THE GOLDEN MILESTONE

“Be still, and know” (Psalm 46:10)! The Hebrew word for still signifies more than quietness and meditation before God; it means to let the tension go out of our life, just as the great cable holds in place the great steamer until the vessel reaches its channel and can go with its own steam. JOHN TIMOTHY STONE