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October 16
"Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." (Heb. 12:1)
ＴHERE are weights which are not sins in themselves, but which become distractions and stumbling blocks in our Christian progress. One of the worst of these is despondency. The heavy heart is indeed a weight that will surely drag us down in our holiness and usefulness.
The failure of Israel to enter the land of promise began in murmuring, or, as the text in Numbers literally puts it, "as it were murmured." Just a faint desire to complain and be discontented. This led on until it blossomed and ripened into rebellion and ruin. Let us give ourselves no liberty ever to doubt God or His love and faithfulness to us in everything and forever.
We can set our will against doubt just as we do against any other sin; and as we stand firm and refuse to doubt, the Holy Spirit will come to our aid and give us the faith of God and crown us with victory.
It is very easy to fall into the habit of doubting, fretting, and wondering if God has forsaken us and if after all our hopes are to end in failure. Let us refuse to be discouraged. Let us refuse to be unhappy. Let us "count it all joy' when we cannot feel one emotion of happiness. Let us rejoice by faith, by resolution, by reckoning, and we shall surely find that God will make the reckoning real.
－Selected.
The devil has two master tricks. One is to get us discouraged; then for a time at least we can be of no service to others, and so are defeated. The other is to make us doubt, thus breaking the faith link by which we are bound to our Father. Look out! Do not be tricked either way.
－G. E. M.
Gladness! I like to cultivate the spirit of gladness! It puts the soul so in tune again, and keeps it in tune, so that Satan is shy of touching it--the chords of the soul become too warm, or too full of heavenly electricity , for his infernal fingers, and he goes off somewhere else! Satan is always very shy of meddling with me when my heart is full of gladness and joy in the Holy Ghost.
My plan is to shun the spirit of sadness as I would Satan; but, alas! I am not always successful. Like the devil himself it meets me on the highway of usefulness, looks me so fully in my face, till my poor soul changes color!
Sadness discolors everything; it leaves all objects charmless; it involves future prospects in darkness; it deprives the soul of all its aspirations, enchains all its powers, and produces a mental paralysis!
An old believer remarked, that cheerfulness in religion makes all its services come off with delight; and that we are never carried forward so swiftly in the ways of duty as when borne on the wings of delight; adding, that Melancholy clips such wings; or, to alter the figure, takes off our chariot wheels in duty, and makes them, like those of the Egyptians, drag heavily.
很多人問勝過自己的方法為何是如此的簡易而直接，而人間的道理幾乎都要花費很長時間去練習，才會具備四種德行中任何的一種？我已經講過忍耐、溫柔、謙卑，是治死老我直接的方法，因為你可藉著回轉和信心，輕易地具備這些德行，就好像稅吏和罪人藉著回轉向著耶穌，就得到幫助和救恩一樣。原因是你們或其他的人用人為的規條和方法，這是一無功效的，不如以單純的信心，像他們一樣直接尋求基督的幫助。
「凡勞苦擔重擔的可以到我這裏來，我就使你們得安息。」這是得平安和安慰何等簡潔的方法，當你從老我和罪惡的權勢中得到釋放，而且得到救贖的能力和基督的美德，那你的規條和方法又成了什麼？當我們設身處地想到耶穌所完成的是何等完全的！當祂完成贖罪大功即升到天上，得了天上一切權柄，成了我們的救主，以在世為人的經驗直接幫助人。
「你說這不是問題，當我憑信心將自己完全獻上，就會自然有相當好的美德，就是其他就近祂的一樣，我傚法祂的門徒以基督裏完全屬祂的信心轉向忍耐、溫柔、謙卑和與神和好的美德上。」
「當我鼓勵你以信心獻上自己並期望這些美德，以同樣的信心和期望轉向真神羔羊，難道單憑神的羔羊就能完全有忍耐、溫柔、謙卑，與神和好；同時，難道每個真實的期望和內心的傾向都受這四種德性管制，你可直接向神要求，在祂面前敬拜，憑信向祂領受完全。」
我太多時候認為信心就是和主在十字架上所完成的工作有關係，但其意義比這更加豐富，我們可因此接受救恩，有基督的心志和聖靈的思念。信心可親自體驗本來在基督裏的恩典和德性，我們也因此有基督的心志。
「所以你們當求莊稼的主，打發工人出去，收祂的莊稼。」馬太福音九章38節
宣教師的問題，是在神手裡，而那鎖鑰是祈禱，不是工作：我們平常視為好的工作，也許也有叫思想不集中神的傾向。宣教師問題的鎖鑰，不是理智，不是醫藥，也不是文化或教育，甚至也不是宣佈福音，乃是祈禱。「所以你們當求莊稼的主。」自然，祈禱似乎迂闊，不切實際，若從理智去觀看，也許是愚笨的。
在耶穌基督的目光裡，沒有國家，只有世界。我們之中有多少人祈禱，不為私人，專為耶穌基督呢？他所要割的莊稼，是罪惡和痛苦。我們要求工人去收割的，也是罪惡和痛苦。我們周圍的人，都是熟了的莊稼，但我們為當前的工作所阻，沒有收割一個。在這些過於耗費氣力的活動上，徒然花費我們主的時間。假若你父親的生命，你兄弟的生命，感受了危險，你還是否像個工人收割耶穌基督的莊稼呢？恐怕你要說「我有特殊的工作要做哩！」基督徒沒有特殊的工作要做。一個基督徒蒙召，歸於耶穌基督，不是一個高於他主人的人，他也不能指定他所要做的。我們的主不召人做特別的工作，祂只召人歸祂自己。「所以你們當求莊稼的主，」祂就製造環境，命你們出去。
「你雖然被撇棄被厭惡，甚至無人經過，我卻使你變為永遠的榮華，成為累代的喜樂。」以賽亞書六十章15節
神很喜歡把失喪之人的最糟經歷，變成祂救贖的愛和力量的最有意義紀念品。祂喜歡祝福撒但所仇恨的受害者及面對惡勢力露出恐懼之情的人，祂能藉著這些人來解釋祂的恩惠，並聖靈的創造力。
神喜歡把我們生命中最壞的、最無法忍受的、最與神為仇的事，完全地扭轉過來，使我們與過去的老我截然不同。
往往最甜美的靈乃是由最猛烈、任性的人轉換出來的；有最大信心的人，則是從懷疑、充滿恐懼的曠野中造就成的；滿有神愛心的人，常是從鐵石心腸、懷恨很深、自私自利的光景中走出來的。
神的恩典能使最不能與人相處的人，以及最惡劣的環境得著改變。祂能化咒詛為祝福，並向世世代代的人及天使彰顯「……罪在那裡顯多，恩典就更顯多了」(羅五20)這個真理。