Encouragement

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="054fd5a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Tyler - Longview Christadelphian Ecclesia</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tyler Longview Christadelphian Ecclesia"><B>home</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Who We Are">Who We Are</A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="News and Events">News and Events</A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ecclesial Statements">Ecclesial Statements</A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Daily Bible Readings">Daily Bible Readings</A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Symbol" >   · 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valign="top" height=390 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFCC" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <I><B>Encouragement</B></I></div> <bR> <div> A little more courage!</div> <div> A little more perseverance,</div> <div> and by His coming the Lord will gird us with immortal strength.</div> <div> He will clear our blurring eyes, and rouse our failing hearts,</div> <div> and strengthen our faltering steps,</div> <div> and revive our drooping life with a vigor that will never abate,</div> <div> wisdom that will never err,</div> <div> and joy that will never end.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> We all have talents,</div> <div> although perhaps, they are few and trifling.</div> <div> Our tongues may not be eloquent,</div> <div> our means may be slender,</div> <div> our leisure time negligible,</div> <div> yet God is satisfied if we use faithfully what we have.</div> <div> It is the willing mind that counts.</div> <div> The case of the widows mite</div> <div> has been written for our encouragement-</div> <div> Logos 1965</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> "I will never leave thee or forsake thee..."</div> <div> ...Such  is the promise of God to every faithful brother and sister,</div> <div> and how unspeakably precious it is!</div> <div> To have the assurance of a mortal man's help and protection is gratifying,</div> <div> but what shall we say of the promised care of the Almighty -</div> <div> He who can turn a man's heart whithersoever He will (Prov. 30:1)-</div> <div> He who can make even our enemies to be at peace with us (Prov. 16:7)?</div> <div> Let us strive to reach a fuller realization of the goodness of our God.</div> <div> There is much to make us insensible to it. God appears, at times,</div> <div> so far away, and our affairs seem so unworthy of His recognition.</div> <div> Our experiences, too, are so ordinary - so like those of all other men.</div> <div> Let us not be misled by such thoughts.</div> <div> God's word is more reliable than mere appearances.</div> <div> Let us cultivate the faith of Paul when he said:</div> <div> "I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me."</div> <div> The more we study the Scriptures,</div> <div> the greater will become our confidence in God and His word.</div> <div> Logos 1960</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> "A man knows not what he can accomplish</div> <div> till necessity is laid upon him-"</div> <div> Brother John Thomas</div> <div> Those only are wise who give themselves to this one thing,</div> <div> who will consent to forego the good opinion of this foolish world for Christ's sake.</div> <div> It is not pleasant, but wise.</div> <div> Wise things are sometimes disagreeable for a time,</div> <div> but sweetness comes at last.</div> <div> Brother John Thomas</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> We must never expect in the present order of things,</div> <div>  that society will or can be perfect; </div> <div> in fact, it is part of God's arrangement that it shall not be so. </div> <div> The predominance of evil is the universal law of human affairs in the sin state. </div> <div> Those who are God's must not shrink away and refuse the battle, but must contend. </div> <div> This contention extends to every aspect of life.</div> <div>  Evil reigns; weakness of nature besets us at every step in ourselves, </div> <div> and those with whom we are surrounded, </div> <div> and there is in all society a preponderating dead weight of indifference to divine things.</div> <div> Association in the truth is the aspect which more immediately affects us;</div> <div>  It is here where we may be most damaged. We look for nothing in this world.</div> <div>  We are apt to have too high ideas of what is attainable in the ecclesia. </div> <div> Christ gives a parable which has a bearing on this question.</div> <div> He likens the kingdom to a net cast into the sea,</div> <div> which draws all manner of fishes, both good and bad. </div> <div> Therefore, we must not come into the community drawn together</div> <div>  by the preaching of the kingdom, with the idea that it is a perfect thing, </div> <div> that each person in it is really the son of God. </div> <div> There could be no more blissful state</div> <div>  than that in which every man and woman should have a supreme sense of God, </div> <div> and with whom his law should be paramount.</div> <div> But such a state of things might not be good for us at present.</div> <div>  We might, perhaps, get too much in love with mere persons and associations,</div> <div>  and forget our present position in relation to eternal law,</div> <div>  Yet we must take care not to be disheartened in relation to the truth, </div> <div> because we find all things are not to our mind. </div> <div> What we must do is to pluck up a good courage, </div> <div> and move neither to the right hand nor to the left, </div> <div> but be steadfast, always doing what we ought to be doing,</div> <div>  whatever others may be saying, thinking, or doing.</div> <div> Never mind other people.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> The Christadelphian 1868</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> <I>We</I> are of yesterday:</div> <div> most of our immediately surrounding circumstances are of yesterday,</div> <div> and if we suffered our thoughts to be molded by these alone,</div> <div> we should find ourselves adopting a completely mistaken policy of life.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> The Christadelphian</div> <div> 1873</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> Be patient; minister to others; do your duty and love is sure to grow. </div> <div> If it does not grow, take higher ground.</div> <div>  Go to the mountain of God, and if you must stand alone</div> <div>  “do good unto those that hate you and say all manner of evil things against you;”</div> <div>  be “kind to the unthankful and the evil.”</div> <div> -A difficult thing, doubtless, for the natural man,</div> <div> but with perseverance, the new man will grow strong enough to get at it.</div> <div>  You will then be enabled to endure, to wait patiently, </div> <div> to exert yourself in a firm and tranquil state of mind towards one another. </div> <div> We must cultivate this. </div> <div> It is impossible to get on in this evil world without it;</div> <div>  because the world is so evil,</div> <div>  that if we wait to be acted upon for good by other people, </div> <div> we shall never be good at all.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> The Christadelphian 1869</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> "...The Bible is to each of us the voice of God</div> <div> as much as was the angel's voice to Paul that stormy night,</div> <div> and because of this we are able, like him, to be cheerful in the storm,</div> <div> and to ask our fellow voyagers to be of good cheer also.</div> <div> The sky is dark and the sea is rough,</div> <div> but we are full of confidence as to the issue of the voyage, because we can say,</div> <div> "I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me."</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> The Christadelphian '84 pg. 60</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> In the darkest hour,</div> <div>  lean on God, in whom you live, </div> <div> and who can cause light to arise out of the darkness independently of us. </div> <div> This is His counsel to us -</div> <div> The Christadelphian 1899</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> Let us bravely breast the dark billows.</div> <div>  Let us remember that we are not alone in the storm. </div> <div> God is near us <I>all the time</I>; and what time our spirit is overwhelmed, </div> <div> let us fly unto him,</div> <div>  whom David well describes as the Rock that is higher than we. </div> <div> He maketh light to arise in the darkness for the upright <I>even now</I>.</div> <div>  He will not put upon us more than we are able to bear.</div> <div>  After we have suffered a while, he will establish, strengthen, settle,-even now. </div> <div> And at the end of the dark journey,</div> <div> there waits a welcome whose sweetness and joy</div> <div>  it hath not entered into our hearts to conceive.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> 1881</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> Now, if you are courageous, faithful and valiant for the truth;</div> <div> if you are really a good and useful man in your day and generation,</div> <div> you may lay your account with being misrepresented, </div> <div> slandered and abused in various ways: </div> <div> but if you turn traitor in faith or practice, or in both, you will become popular, </div> <div> and obtain the applause of the ignorant and hypocrites. </div> <div> This is my experience, and it will certainly be yours. </div> <div> And how can it be otherwise? </div> <div> Human nature is the Devil; and, if ignorant and uncontrolled by the truth, </div> <div> will act devilishly. </div> <div> Nothing good is to be expected from it, for there is in it “no good thing.”</div> <div> Brother John Thomas</div> <div> 1866</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> In our weakness we can but tremble -</div> <div> in view of the unspeakably momentous consequences involved, </div> <div> but this should not detract an iota from that faith we have in His promises,</div> <div>  nor that hope we have in His mercies.</div> <div>  As to troubles - I have settled down to the conviction that we shall have them </div> <div> to the end as one of the ways of providence </div> <div> to take the dross from the gold and gather His jewels. </div> <div> Ah, who will come out as such? </div> <div> The righteousness of Christ in manifestation at the judgment alone can give the answer. </div> <div> So let us be watchful, prayerful, and patient,</div> <div> watching the foundations of our hope that all will be well.</div> <div> Brother Lemuel Edwards</div> <div>     Lanesville, Va.</div> <div> 1895</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> <B>Everything has a good purpose. </B></div> <div> The very winds that blow and cause so much devastation,</div> <div>  are, in existing circumstances, </div> <div> a necessary purification of this planet as a habitation; </div> <div> the very thunder-storms that crash, and roar, and destroy, and frighten man and beast,</div> <div>  are the means of that equileibrial rectification of mundane forces,</div> <div>  which is essential to our existence; the evils to which we are subject</div> <div> -the pains we feel-</div> <div> are but the obverse of beneficent law;</div> <div>  for if we were incapable of pain, we should be incapable of enjoyment,</div> <div>  and exposed to many destructions…</div> <div>  if you go round the whole circle of nature,</div> <div>  you will find beneficence the ultimate law of wisdom. </div> <div> Yet the rules of wisdom are never slackened to give beneficence a longer rope.</div> <div>  Justice and righteousness hold the reins with unflinching hand. </div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> 1868</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> It is a necessity in an evil world like this, </div> <div> for the friend of God to occasionally get away from the depressing and demoralizing influences at work everywhere.</div> <div>   A man can never see things as they are without a good share of solitude, </div> <div> and the unhampered communion with God which solitude admits of.</div> <div>  In human company (unless the godliest) human views and thoughts inevitably press themselves upon us. </div> <div> We do not see things as they are, but as they appear.</div> <div>  We are pressed with views of the moment, of the locality, of the personal exigencies of the hour - </div> <div> all mere elements of a picture as transient as the gold-tipped clouds of evening.</div> <div>  We want to see God, and His eternal purpose, and human thought and action as related to these; </div> <div> and to do this, we require to get away much and to pray much.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> Nazareth Revisited</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> Brethren, the day is breaking.</div> <div> If it takes along time to break and is slow in coming, we must remember the day is long that is coming, and that the night has been long from which it is emerging...</div> <div> Soon amid turmoils and complications and gladsome tokens</div> <div> of this later day will Christ announce his presence...</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> Find if you can,</div> <div> any ray of hope, any door of escape</div> <div> for this miserable world,</div> <div> save in the promises made to the Jewish nation,</div> <div> and to the gentiles through and after them,</div> <div> and in the coming of the Lord,</div> <div> and in his universal reign and kingdom.</div> <div> For which, let your souls be stirred up to pray most fervently,</div> <div> while you wait most patiently,</div> <div> and long most anxiously,</div> <div> for the day of the glorious coming of this kingdom,</div> <div> when God's will shall be done as it is in heaven</div> <div> Brother John Thomas</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> Vilification</div> <div> has been a well used implement in the hands of the malice.</div> <div> Paul had his share of the experience.</div> <div> He speaks of "evil report and good report"</div> <div> as being alike his experience.</div> <div> Why should we think it strange</div> <div> if we have to taste the same?</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> The Lord has not yet come; and we are to continue "till He come, "unmoved by the instabilities everywhere manifesting themselves around us. The times are perilous for such as "have no root in themselves," and even for those whose feet are on track there is danger. Let us be on our guard. </div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> We never tire of the fresh air and the beautiful light,</div> <div> or grow weary of the blue sky or face of nature.</div> <div> Wholesome food is always acceptable to a healthy palate.</div> <div> There is something in the adaptations of things that makes these things</div> <div> perennial in their power to satisfy.</div> <div> So it is with the things of the Spirit of God to the new man formed within us by the Truth.</div> <div> They are always fresh and sweet to the taste.</div> <div> They are always beautiful and holy and strengthening.</div> <div> They will never grow stale or pall upon the spirits.</div> <div> They are adapted to the highest desires.</div> <div> They alone can supply the demand of our ultimate aspirations.</div> <div> This is true of the mental relations of this mortal state.</div> <div> How much more must it be true of the Spirit state</div> <div> in which all earthy affinities will have been absorbed in the wonderful physical transmutation which changes this corruptible and mortal body</div> <div> into the incorruptible and immortal.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> Seasons of Comforts</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> To know the nature of the times</div> <div> is the best qualification for bearing them.</div> <div> The Bible view tranquilizes them all.</div> <div> It reveals the barren nature of the age now current upon the earth,</div> <div> and it comforts with the assured prospect of</div> <div> the feast of fat things which the Lord of Hosts will prepare -</div> <div> not only for his waiting and fasting children, but for</div> <div> "all people that on earth do dwell."</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> Diary of a Voyage</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> God is great and we are small.</div> <div> God is eternal and we are of yesterday:</div> <div> God upholdeth all things, and we uphold nothing,</div> <div> but ourselves upholden by Him every moment.</div> <div> Most reasonable therefore,</div> <div> that we choose His honor and His fear as the mainspring of our life.</div> <div> And most profitable shall we find it for ourselves.</div> <div> If we commit or way to Him,</div> <div> magnifying His Word as He has magnified it,</div> <div> giving it first place in the economy of our lives,</div> <div> He will guide our steps to greater enlargement of spiritual attainments,</div> <div> strengthening us with all might in the inner man,</div> <div> and filling us with the knowledge of His will.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> Christadelphian 1874</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> We are seven days further on the journey</div> <div> than when we last broke bread together.</div> <div> It is a weary journey in which we need rest and refreshment or</div> <div> else we should fall altogether by the way.</div> <div> Like the children of Israel,</div> <div> we are going through a great and terrible wilderness,</div> <div> wherein are scorpions and fiery serpents.</div> <div> We read of Israel, that:</div> <div> "the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way."</div> <div> It is no wonder.</div> <div> When difficulty succeeds difficulty, apparently with out end,</div> <div> human strength and patience are likely to give way...</div> <div> But while we are here in conflict with the evil we need to be fortified-</div> <div> Fortified to endure.</div> <div> To fortify the mind is to make it strong,</div> <div> and to make it strong is to fill it with ideas</div> <div> that give a joyful reason for action.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> Seasons of Comfort vol. 2</div> <div> <I>Isa 26:3</I></div> <div> <I> Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,</I></div> <div> <I>whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.</I></div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> "Be of good cheer"</div> <div> Were the words of Jesus to his friends in the days of his flesh.</div> <div> Could his voice be audible in our day,</div> <div> he would say the same to every true heart that is</div> <div> walking through the darkness by the light of the morning star.</div> <div> He knows where these are,</div> <div> and they themselves know of themselves.</div> <div> They are mourners as all the fathers were; but they may take comfort.</div> <div> What though iniquity abound, and the love of many wax cold!</div> <div> What though brother betrays brother!</div> <div> This is nothing new.</div> <div> It happened to the generation of believers that witnessed the Lord's departure from the earth;</div> <div> no marvel if the generation that is to see his return should taste like experience-</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> Comfort is the assurance of good-</div> <div> either of advantage to be received or</div> <div> evil to be delivered from;</div> <div> but to be <I><B>true</B></I><I> </I>comfort, the assurance must be true.</div> <div> If the good things said be not true,</div> <div> the first element of comfort is lacking on both sides;</div> <div> the comforter is a deceiver,</div> <div> and the comforted, the believer of a lie.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> <I>We are like the children</I></div> <div>  on the road to a house to which they have been invited.</div> <div>  Our stature and our strength are small,</div> <div>  and though the prospect of the party is attractive, </div> <div> our little steps grow tired. </div> <div> What do we say to the children in such a case?</div> <div>  We comfort and encourage them by telling them they will soon be at their journey's end,</div> <div> and that they will forget all their weariness once they get there.</div> <div>  Our journey is not long though it seems so. </div> <div> We look at our future in perspective and think it longer than it is.</div> <div>  It cannot last above so many years, and perhaps not one; </div> <div> and when it is over, it is over for ever.</div> <div>  The toils of this mortal will never return.</div> <div>  The anxieties, and weakness, and disappointments of this state</div> <div>  will be replaced by comfort, strength, and gladness for ever. </div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> The Christadelphian</div> <div> 1889</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> In all our troubles and problems and disappointments,</div> <div> let us never for a moment forget our blessings -</div> <div> and our obligation of constant thanksgiving for them.</div> <div> This is what troubles are for;</div> <div> to drive us ever more deeply into the comfort of our blessings, </div> <div> and to make us all the more diligent to lay secure hold on them</div> <div>  by righteousness and loving service to God.</div> <div> Our blessings are always infinitely greater than our troubles ever could be.</div> <div> If we cannot see this, we are blind indeed -</div> <div>  Brother Gilbert V Growcott</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> The crown waits </div> <div> for those whose obedience in days of evil proves them fit.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <div>  </div> <div> We must earnestly desire God's personal companionship.</div> <div>  We must not be content or happy without it. </div> <div>  It must be a constant yearning and feeling of need.</div> <div>   Sad and bitter experience in this life greatly strengthens desire.  </div> <div> That is one of the reasons it is needed and beneficial.</div> <div>   Only God is dependable.  Only God understands.</div> <div>  In God's mercy and wisdom, </div> <div> there can be much comfort and support in human beings,</div> <div>  but we cannot make our happiness dependent on them, </div> <div> or build upon them, or build on them as our foundation. </div> <div> All flesh is grass - In God alone is safety and security.</div> <div> G.V. Growcott</div> <div> Search me, O God</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> "Comfort ye my people."</div> <div> There is a comfort now in prospect of the substantial comfort that God will bestow</div> <div> in the blessing and exaltation of His chosen in the day of Christ.</div> <div> All the groanings of the saints that the spirit has preserved in the Word</div> <div> are mingled with this comfort;</div> <div> and by the same comfort may we</div> <div> comfort our hearts in the present time of waiting and patience.</div> <div> God is observant of all our ways;</div> <div> and God never forgets.</div> <div> Christ's eye is over all the ecclesia's,</div> <div> "trying the reins hearts,"</div> <div> that every man may receive according to his ways.</div> <div> Therefore our tears and our sighs,</div> <div> at our present desolation,</div> <div> are not lost,</div> <div> though unseen of men.</div> <div> Our troubles, in this respect, are pleasing to him.</div> <div> In due time he will wipe away the tears</div> <div> and fill our mouth with laughter.</div> <div> In this respect we learn to rejoice even in tribulation.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> Comfort is the assurance of good-</div> <div> either of advantage to be received</div> <div> or</div> <div> evil to be delivered from;</div> <div> but to be true comfort, the assurance must be true.</div> <div> If the good things said be not true,</div> <div> the first element of comfort is lacking on both sides;</div> <div> the comforter is a deceiver,</div> <div> and the comforted, the believer of a lie.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> <I>Brother Robert Roberts is speaking of false comforts offered when his four year old son, Brother John Thomas, died.</I></div> <div> <I>This is in response to a letter he received which said his son is in a better place, a "happy land".</I></div> <div> <I>The Christadelphian 1873</I></div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> God knows our draw back of living in the midst of a frightful desolation.</div> <div> Let us not despair. We have His Word, which is both a light and a fertilizer.</div> <div> Keeping close to it in daily reading, we shall be kept from evil,</div> <div> and grow into conformity with its noble spirit of enlightened devoutness,</div> <div> not withstanding the deforming blight that reigns in all the world.</div> <div> By the power of the scriptures and the protection of God,</div> <div> we shall be preserved in the universal corruption,</div> <div> and be prepared for the glory of God in that gladsome and glorious day</div> <div> of which the Psalm concludes with a glimpse:  a day when he will:</div> <div> "set the poor on high from affliction and place them in families like a flock:</div> <div> when the righteous shall see it and rejoice, and all iniquity shall stop her mouth."</div> <div> then shall the earth be invited to "sing a song to the Lord,"</div> <div> and then shall come a joyful response from its purified population-</div> <div> blessed, in all their families in Abraham and his seed.</div> <div> Then shall the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad;</div> <div> the sea roar, and the fullness thereof.</div> <div> Then shall the floods clap their hands and the hills be joyful together,</div> <div> "Before the Lord who cometh to judge the world </div> <div> with righteousness and the people with truth."</div> <div>  Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> The Christadelphian 1887</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> There are beautiful walks here.</div> <div> One in particular I have often and much enjoyed.</div> <div> It is the footpath that goes on the face of the rocks about sixty feet above the sea,</div> <div> for about five miles round a headland that shoots into the sea to the west of town.</div> <div> Here is solitude, ample view of sea and sky,</div> <div> and the refreshing sea breeze.</div> <div> The thoughts can take flight without restraint;</div> <div> and the truth alone supplies great and ennobling thoughts.</div> <div> I have felt the benefit of being able thus to take an outside view of the work in which we are all engaged.</div> <div> There is so much to harass and worry and weary in the details of the actual work itself</div> <div> that we are all apt to fail sometimes realizing what we are all about...</div> <div> Brother Roberts</div> <div> The Christadelphian 1875 pg. 216</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> ...The lesson of Joseph's life is unmistakable.</div> <div> It is what we have already seen illustrated,</div> <div> that God works when His hand is not apparent,</div> <div> and often when it would seem as if He must be taking no notice,</div> <div> and by means that seem to exclude the possibility of His being at work.</div> <div> The conclusion is comforting to those who commit their way to God.</div> <div> It may seem to them that God is not only working with them, </div> <div> but actually working against them.</div> <div> Let them remember the agony of Joseph is the pit, in slavery, in false imprisonment,</div> <div> and learn that the darkest paths in their life</div> <div>  may be the ways appointed for them to reach liberty and life,</div> <div> wealth and honor - yea, a throne in the kingdom of the anti-typical Joseph,</div> <div> who himself had to tread the dark and tearful valley of humiliation,</div> <div> and who in the day of his glory,</div> <div> will introduce all his brethren,</div> <div> amongst many bright stars, to the most interesting of Jacob's sons.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> The Ways of Providence</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> The crown of the future shines all the brighter for present conflict.</div> <div> To fellowship the present sufferings of Christ </div> <div> in any form is the surest way to appreciate the glory to be revealed. </div> <div> The weary traveler sighs for the end of his journey.</div> <div> There is rest for God's laborers, deliverance for his groaning captives.  </div> <div> Only let us be sure that the cross we bear is Christ's, and the load we carry is for his sake;</div> <div> for many a poor man is over weighted with a burden that will sink him into perdition.</div> <div> "The cares of this life"</div> <div>  bring no promise of rest with them unless sustained under a sense of stewardship </div> <div> to the absent master,</div> <div>  and from a desire to serve him with our substance and our energies</div> <div>  - our bodies and our spirits which are his.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> 1866</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div>  “I am overwhelmed:” </div> <div> such were the last words of the Earl of Beaconsfield. They are significant. </div> <div> Literally, they expressed the sinking sense he experienced of inability to further cope</div> <div> with the disease which carried him off; </div> <div> but they may be regarded in a higher sense than he intended. </div> <div> They represent the finish of the most splendid career a man can have </div> <div> in the present evil world. </div> <div> They make a good crest motto for “the children of this world” in every grade.</div> <div> It comes to this at last, “I am overwhelmed.”</div> <div> Nothing can avert such a finish.</div> <div> The saints die as other men; but they are not overwhelmed.</div> <div> They fall asleep to find the morning come with freedom, honor, life and joy.</div> <div> Paul's case is their type: “I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course.</div> <div>  I have kept the faith. Henceforth”</div> <div> -Ah, that makes the difference. </div> <div> There is a “henceforth” to “the death of all his saints.” </div> <div> A glorious henceforth-a henceforth reached at once as it seems to them; </div> <div> a henceforth of perfect well-being</div> <div> -a crown of righteousness laid up for “all them that love the Lord's appearing.”</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> Possibilities </div> <div> are determined by circumstances and capacity.</div> <div> Impossibilities will never be exacted by the supreme Judge.</div> <div> What will be looked for and what must be cultivated,</div> <div> is the diligent accomplishment of that which is within our power. </div> <div> It may be very little, but lets do it continually,</div> <div> and with a good conscience,</div> <div> as in the sight and service of God and we shall be accepted.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> The Ambassador </div> <div> 1887</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div>  “Denying ungodliness and wordly lusts” is not an exhilarating performance. </div> <div> We may often feel dreary in the performance. Let us not be too much dejected. </div> <div> The present world is an evil world under <I>any </I>circumstances.</div> <div>  Evil is ingrained in the constitution of things. </div> <div> “Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward.” </div> <div> People in effect imagine we can escape it by one contrivance or another. </div> <div> They constantly tug at their chains. It is a vain struggle. </div> <div> We are in the grasp of sin's bondage </div> <div> and we cannot be free except in the way provided in Christ. </div> <div> It is better to quietly and finally accept our fate with resignation, and lay hold of the blessed hope God has given us in the gospel. </div> <div> It is a help in the doing of this to remember that the prophets and their companions </div> <div> have been sighing,</div> <div> sorrowing men who have had to fortify themselves by the consolation of the truth. </div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> The Christadelphian</div> <div> 1896</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> to rejoice in <I>everything </I>in our lives, good and bad,</div> <div> for all is of God and all is for a wise and loving purpose.</div> <div> We rejoice in the fundamental, unchanging realities that God is good,</div> <div> and that God is great,</div> <div> and that all things work steadily forward to eternal joy.</div> <div> Brother Gilbert V Growcott </div> <div> <I>Phil 4:4</I></div> <div> <I> Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.  </I></div> <bR> <div> <B>~</B></div> <bR> <div> A present peace, Christ certainly intends all his people to find. </div> <div> His words are express on this point: “My peace I leave with you.” “Ye shall find rest unto your souls.” </div> <div> He is our ever-living and guiding friend. </div> <div> The world can show nothing like this -</div> <div>  They have their friends, but the friendship is not deep, and is mostly a thing of convenience. </div> <div> And it is little that one friend can do for another, and in the long run</div> <div> -we might even say the short run-of things, </div> <div> they all fade off from each other's horizon-if not in life, then by death,</div> <div> which waits to take them all, one by one.</div> <div> But here is a friend whose friendship is unselfish, pure, divine:</div> <div> who loves you for yourself and for your own love, and not for what you have: </div> <div> whom time cannot weary and death cannot touch-</div> <div> “who ever liveth to make intercession for us according to the will of God.” </div> <div> Is not this a healing memory? Who is there among us that does not find life a weary and desert waste,</div> <div> in which we toil painfully forward to the Holy City?</div> <div> Who is there that does not often feel that “days are dark and friends are few?”</div> <div> that fellow-man is blind, and indifferent, and even cruel?</div> <div> Who is there that does not sometimes have the heart wrung deep with anguish at the failure of all hopes,</div> <div> and the blighting of all prospects, and the quenching of all joy? </div> <div> For all this, here is balm: </div> <div> Christ knows. Christ loves. Christ understands. Christ owns us. Christ values us.</div> <div> He reckons as done to himself what is done to us.</div> <div> He has said so-not in our age-not to us personally: but at a time, and through channels,</div> <div> and in a manner that affords absolute guarantee of truth.</div> <div> He dare not speak to us personally while the process of our development goes on. </div> <div> The Divine method requires one speaking for all, that faith may come into play.</div> <div> <B>We have but to call faith to our rescue. </B></div> <div> Is it not a happy thought and a healing memory that we have such a friend who,</div> <div> if all forsake, will not leave us, if we are faithful to him:</div> <div> who, if all misunderstand and wrongfully accuse, knows the uttermost secrets of the heart, </div> <div> and will justify us at the last and even forgive the aberrations of mortal weakness </div> <div> where others exact the last pound of flesh:</div> <div>  and who, if he leave us in the dark paths of adversity while sin reigns on the earth, </div> <div> only does so that he may stretch out his strong right hand at the right moment,</div> <div>  to lift us out of the grave and say, </div> <div> “Come, ye blessed of my Father: inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world?”</div> <div> Open your heart to all this divine comfort. </div> <div> He intends you to take it, and to have it-now, in this present time.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> 1892</div> <bR> <div> <B>~</B></div> <bR> <div> Popularity I despise; it is an empty bubble!</div> <div> Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the shouts of the people,</div> <div> and a few days after, they clammered  against his life.</div> <div> My aim is the</div> <div> "well done thou good and faithful servant."</div> <div>  </div> <div> Brother John Thomas</div> <bR> <div> <B>~</B></div> <bR> <div> A present peace, Christ certainly intends all his people to find. </div> <div> His words are express on this point: “My peace I leave with you.” “Ye shall find rest unto your souls.” </div> <div> He is our ever-living and guiding friend. </div> <div> The world can show nothing like this -</div> <div>  They have their friends, but the friendship is not deep, and is mostly a thing of convenience. </div> <div> And it is little that one friend can do for another, and in the long run</div> <div> -we might even say the short run-of things, </div> <div> they all fade off from each other's horizon-if not in life, then by death,</div> <div> which waits to take them all, one by one.</div> <div> But here is a friend whose friendship is unselfish, pure, divine:</div> <div> who loves you for yourself and for your own love, and not for what you have: </div> <div> whom time cannot weary and death cannot touch-</div> <div> “who ever liveth to make intercession for us according to the will of God.” </div> <div> Is not this a healing memory? Who is there among us that does not find life a weary and desert waste,</div> <div> in which we toil painfully forward to the Holy City?</div> <div> Who is there that does not often feel that “days are dark and friends are few?”</div> <div> that fellow-man is blind, and indifferent, and even cruel?</div> <div> Who is there that does not sometimes have the heart wrung deep with anguish at the failure of all hopes,</div> <div> and the blighting of all prospects, and the quenching of all joy? </div> <div> For all this, here is balm: </div> <div> Christ knows. Christ loves. Christ understands. Christ owns us. Christ values us.</div> <div> He reckons as done to himself what is done to us.</div> <div> He has said so-not in our age-not to us personally: but at a time, and through channels,</div> <div> and in a manner that affords absolute guarantee of truth.</div> <div> He dare not speak to us personally while the process of our development goes on. </div> <div> The Divine method requires one speaking for all, that faith may come into play.</div> <div> <B>We have but to call faith to our rescue. </B></div> <div> Is it not a happy thought and a healing memory that we have such a friend who,</div> <div> if all forsake, will not leave us, if we are faithful to him:</div> <div> who, if all misunderstand and wrongfully accuse, knows the uttermost secrets of the heart, </div> <div> and will justify us at the last and even forgive the aberrations of mortal weakness </div> <div> where others exact the last pound of flesh:</div> <div>  and who, if he leave us in the dark paths of adversity while sin reigns on the earth, </div> <div> only does so that he may stretch out his strong right hand at the right moment,</div> <div>  to lift us out of the grave and say, </div> <div> “Come, ye blessed of my Father: inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world?”</div> <div> Open your heart to all this divine comfort. </div> <div> He intends you to take it, and to have it-now, in this present time.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> 1892</div> <bR> <div> <B>~</B></div> <bR> <div> Live much in the Bible,</div> <div> and you will not be troubled much at the confusion that prevails among men -</div> <div> whether those men are called brethren or not.</div> <div> These confusions have existed from the very beginning,</div> <div> and they are not going to end until Christ himself arrives to put things in order.</div> <div> So you must not look for hope of rest in that direction.</div> <div> Reading, prayer, and kind deeds will bring you peace from strifes that destroy many.</div> <div> Remember the quietus that is awaiting every hot human tongue a short way ahead,</div> <div>  and it will help you to bear and to</div> <div> "follow the things that make for peace".</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <bR> <div> <B>~</B></div> <bR> <div> Lift up your mind out of the dust into the sky.</div> <div> It is a lifelong, try-fall-and-try-again process, over and over.</div> <div> Keep forcing the mind back, and up.  It does not come easily.</div> <div> The mind is lazy, very lazy, especially in spiritual things.</div> <div> It like to grovel in the earth. It likes to potter with toys. </div> <div> It like to be amused, excited, entertained -</div> <div> <I>Anything</I> but work and labor.</div> <div>  But, with God's help, the mind is capable of wonderful, glorious, infinitely joyful things.</div> <div> It is a marvelous device, though made of common clay.</div> <div> How little we use its intended powers!</div> <div> How we waste and degrade and abuse it with out infantile toys and prattle and buffoonery! God's greatest gift to us personally is conscience.</div> <div> And his greatest blessing is pure conscience, through obedience that comes by love</div> <div> That come by faith.</div> <div> Brother Gilbert V Growcott</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> Learn</div> <div> to govern the thoughts,</div> <div> and it will not be difficult to govern the actions.</div> <div>  </div> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> We are to do as Paul says:</div> <div> “<I>by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory, honour, and immortality</I>.” </div> <div> That implies a good deal of trouble; </div> <div> for a man's patience is not exercised when there is no trouble. </div> <div> A patient continuance in well-doing is a tenacious abiding,</div> <div>  day by day, in the midst of discouraging circumstances,</div> <div> and in the face of trying difficulties, </div> <div> in the performance of those things that God has required of us. </div> <div> There is great consolation for those who are walking in this patient way. </div> <div> We must fellowship the suffering of Christ, </div> <div> before we shall be privileged to fellowship his glory;</div> <div> but when the battle is over, we shall feel the truth of what Paul says</div> <div> “that the sufferings of the present time are nothing to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” </div> <div> Just for the present, we are in the Valley of Humiliation; </div> <div> we are in a state of weakness and sin,</div> <div> but keeping our eye steadfastly fixed on the morning dawn that has been so long held up in promise to human view, we are enabled to persevere and work until the night comes, </div> <div> when no man can work-a night that has come to all who have gone before us, </div> <div> and may come to us, </div> <div> but which will quickly be ended by the bright rising of that Sun of Righteousness, </div> <div> who will usher in eternal day.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <div> 1868</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> Wise things are sometimes disagreeable for a time,</div> <div> but sweetness comes at last.</div> <div>  Brother John Thomas</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> <I>"Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. </I></div> <div> <I>Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished and her iniquity is pardoned."</I></div> <div> <I>Isaiah 40</I></div> <bR> <div> Comfort depends on the state of the mind.</div> <div> The comfort offered by the Scriptures is not dependant upon immediate fulfillment.</div> <div> It is the assurance of an ultimate reign of peace and good,</div> <div> that is separated from no individual by more than a span of a human lifetime.</div> <div> Its comfort is not that distress is finished -</div> <div> but that distress is a controlled and necessary ingredient of the final result.</div> <bR> <div> <I>"Sorrow endureth for the night,"</I></div> <div> says the Psalmist- and the night may be long -</div> <div> "<I>but joy cometh in the morning."</I></div> <div> The course of wisdom is not to ignore or belittle the sorrow,</div> <div> but balance the whole picture.</div> <div> We shall not be overwhelmed by the one if the other is kept rightly in mind.</div> <div> Brother Gilbert V. Growcott</div> <div> Be Ye Transformed Vol 2</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> How comforting </div> <div> to know the truth of what David says, that </div> <div> “like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him;” </div> <div> and that “no good thing will he withhold from them that please Him;” </div> <div> that there is no error or caprice with Him; </div> <div> that He is long-suffering, patient and benevolent to a degree beyond our knowledge;</div> <div> that kindness is the first quality of His being-that God is love. </div> <div> When we feel all that, we are solaced in the midst of life's uncertain experiences.</div> <div> We come to realise by the meditation that comes with the daily reading of the word</div> <div> -that things will go right; </div> <div> that however wrong they appear to be, they will go right in the end, </div> <div> if we do those things that are well-pleasing in His sight. </div> <div> “All things work together for good to those who are the called according to the purpose of God.”</div> <bR> <div> <B>~</B></div> <bR> <div> How much blessing there is for us in Christ's intercession </div> <div> we shall never fully know till we have its fruits sealed to us in glory at his coming. </div> <div> But it is meanwhile a source of comfort in the bitterness of probation,</div> <div>  to know that he ever liveth to make intercession for us according to the will of God. </div> <div> If the blessing of Isaac on Jacob was potential for good,</div> <div> -if Balak could say with any truth of Balaam,</div> <div>  “I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed,” </div> <div> how much more may we rest with confidence on the love and intercession of him</div> <div>  to whom all power in heaven and in earth has been given.</div> <div> Brother Robert Roberts</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> There is nothing like the education of the truth </div> <div> for developing all parts of our nature into harmony, </div> <div> and putting us into a true relation to the hand of God in creation. </div> <div> It lifts the superior brain into its true position as the supreme director of the whole man,</div> <div> and helps to restore somewhat of the Elohistic dignity which primarily belongs to the human species.</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> Let not the faults of yesterday </div> <div> deter you from the efforts at excellence to day. </div> <div> The blemished past soon disappears before a mended present.</div> <div>  There is no good to be done by giving in.</div> <div> After all, it is the unsatisfied men that do most good</div> <div>  (provided their ways are wise and their objects kind).</div> <div>  They go to work and stir things up, and many get benefit,</div> <div>  whereas all around a perfectly satisfied man,</div> <div>  the waters are apt to be very still.</div> <bR> <div> The Christadelphian </div> <div> 1890</div> <bR> <div> ~</div> <bR> <div> Great is the consolation that</div> <div> "the wise shall understand", and shall</div> <div> "shine as the brightness of the firmament".</div> <div> Be then this our happiness, to understand, believe and do,</div> <div> that we may be blessed in our deed,</div> <div> and attain to the glorious liberty and manifestation of the sons of God.</div> <div> Brother John Thomas</div> <div> Elpis Israel pg. 8</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>