Charles E. Cowman - Streams in the Desert

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.

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"If thou canst believe, all things are possible. to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23).

Seldom have we heard a better definition of faith than was given once in one of our meetings, by a dear old coloured woman, as she answered the question of a young man how to take the Lord for needed help.

In her characteristic way, pointing her finger toward him, she said with great emphasis: "You've just got to believe that He's done it and it's done." The great danger with most of us is that, after we ask Him to do it, we do not believe that it is done, but we keep on helping Him, and getting others to help Him; and waiting to see how He is going to do it.

Faith adds its "Amen" to God's "Yea," and then takes its hands off, and leaves God to finish His work. Its language is, "Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him; and he worketh.' --Days of Heaven upon Earth

"I simply take Him at His word,

I praise Him that my prayer is heard,

And claim my answer from the Lord;

I take, He undertakes."

An active faith can give thanks for a promise, though it be not as yet performed; knowing that God's bonds are as good as ready money. --Matthew Henry

Passive faith accepts the word as true

But never moves.

Active faith begins the work to do,

And thereby proves.

Passive faith says, "I believe it! every word of God is true. Well I know He hath not spoken what He cannot, will not, do.

He hath bidden me, 'Go forward!' but a closed-up way I see,

When the waters are divided, soon in Canaan's land I'll be.

Lo! I hear His voice commanding, 'Rise and walk: take up thy bed'; And, 'Stretch forth thy withered member!' which for so long has been dead. When I am a little stronger, then, I know I'll surely stand:

When there comes a thrill of heating, I will use with ease My other hand.

Yes, I know that 'God is able' and full willing all to do:

I believe that every promise, sometime, will to me come true."

Active faith says, "I believe it! and the promise now I take, Knowing well, as I receive it, God, each promise, real will make. So I step into the waters, finding there an open way;

Onward press, the land possessing; nothing can my progress stay.

Yea, I rise at His commanding, walk straightway, and joyfully:

This, my hand, so sadly shrivelled, as I reach, restored shall be. What beyond His faithful promise, would I wish or do I need?

Looking not for 'signs or wonders,' I'll no contradiction heed. Well I know that 'God is able,' and full willing all to do:

I believe that every promise, at this moment can come true."

Passive faith but praises in the light,

When sun doth shine.

Active faith will praise in darkest night--Which faith is thine?

--Selected

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"And there came a lion" (1 Sam. 17:34).

It is a source of inspiration and strength to come in touch with the youthful David, trusting God. Through faith in God he conquered a lion and a bear, and afterwards overthrew the mighty Goliath. When that lion came to despoil that flock, it came as a wondrous opportunity to David. If he had failed or faltered he would have missed God's opportunity for him and probably would never have come to be God's chosen king of Israel. "And there came a lion."

One would not think that a lion was a special blessing from God; one would think that only an occasion of alarm. The lion was God's opportunity in disguise. Every difficulty that presents itself to us, if we receive it in the right way, is God's opportunity. Every temptation that comes is God's opportunity.

When the "lion" comes, recognize it as God's opportunity no matter how rough the exterior. The very tabernacle of God was covered with badgers' skins and goats' hair; one would not think there would be any glory there. The Shekinah of God was manifest under that kind of covering. May God open our eyes to see Him, whether in temptations, trials, dangers, or misfortunes.

--C. H. P.

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"John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true" (John 10:41).

You may be very discontented with yourself. You are no genius, have no brilliant gifts, and are inconspicuous for any special faculty. Mediocrity is the law of your existence. Your days are remarkable for nothing but sameness and insipidity. Yet you may live a great life.

John did no miracle, but Jesus said that among those born of women there had not appeared a greater than he.

John's main business was to bear witness to the Light, and this may be yours and mine. John was content to be only a voice, if men would think of Christ.

Be willing to be only a voice, heard but not seen; a mirror whose surface is lost to view, because it reflects the dazzling glory of the sun; a breeze that springs up just before daylight, and says, "The dawn! the dawn!" and then dies away.

Do the commonest and smallest things as beneath His eye. If you must live with uncongenial people, set to their conquest by love. If you have made a great mistake in your life, do not let it becloud all of it; but, locking the secret in your breast, compel it to yield strength and sweetness.

We are doing more good than we know, sowing seeds, starting streamlets, giving men true thoughts of Christ, to which they will refer one day as the first things that started them thinking of Him; and, of my part, I shall be satisfied if no great mausoleum is raised over my grave, but that simple souls shall gather there when I am gone, and say,

"He was a good man; he wrought no miracles, but he spake words about Christ, which led me to know Him for myself." --George Matheson

"THY HIDDEN ONES" (Psa. 83:3)

"Thick green leaves from the soft brown earth,

Happy springtime hath called them forth;

First faint promise of summer bloom

Breathes from the fragrant, sweet perfume,

Under the leaves.

"Lift them! what marvellous beauty lies

Hidden beneath, from our thoughtless eyes!

Mayflowers, rosy or purest white,

Lift their cups to the sudden light,

Under the leaves.

"Are there no lives whose holy deeds--

Seen by no eye save His who reads

Motive and action--in silence grow

Into rare beauty, and bud and blow

Under the leaves?

"Fair white flowers of faith and trust,

Springing from spirits bruised and crushed;

Blossoms of love, rose-tinted and bright,

Touched and painted with Heaven's own light

Under the leaves.

"Full fresh clusters of duty borne,

Fairest of all in that shadow grown;

Wondrous the fragrance that sweet and rare

Comes from the flower-cups hidden there

Under the leaves.

"Though unseen by our vision dim,

Bud and blossom are known to Him;

Wait we content for His heavenly ray--

Wait till our Master Himself one day Lifteth the leaves."

"God calls many of His most valued workers from the unknown multitude" (Luke 14:23).

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"Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you" (Joshua 1:3).

Beside the literal ground, unoccupied for Christ, there is the unclaimed, untrodden territory of Divine promises. What did God say to Joshua? "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you," and then He draws the outlines of the Land of Promise--all theirs on one condition: that they shall march through the length and breadth of it, and measure it off with their own feet.