"For a more tender and true Shepherd cannot be found."

Jesus therefore said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep…. I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me….and I lay down My life for the sheep…. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

John 10: 7, 14, 27-28

There’s a peace here in the green valley;

Along the edge of the brook I lay down.

You’ve led me here to rest my soul, so weary;

For a more tender and true Shepherd cannot be found.

Over mountains and along steep, rocky crags,

I hear Your voice, and love is the sound,

Saying, “Stay near, my child, I’ll lead the way”;

For a more tender and true Shepherd cannot be found.

Though clouds descend and I can’t see;

And valleys of deep darkness are all that surround;

It’s then that You lift and gently carry me;

For a more tender and true Shepherd cannot be found.

The radiant evening sky is dusted with stars;

Nighttime isn’t dark, with jewels all around.

Your love shines forth, comforting my anxious heart;

For a more tender and true Shepherd cannot be found.

C.A. TAYLOR

It is morning. The dew lies heavy on the upland wolds; the fresh morning breeze is airing the fevered world; the sun's pavilion glows with gorgeous colors, as he prepares to emerge on his daily pilgrimage; and the shepherds stand knocking at the barred gates of the fold, calling to the porter to let them have their flocks. When the door opens, each calls to His own sheep, and leads them forth, and they follow him to pastures green and waters still. They would flee from a strange voice; but they know their shepherds.

     In the hubbub the voice of the true Shepherd is undetected or unheeded, except by a few. But these hear its soft gentle tones, and obey, and follow; and to do so is certain evidence that they are His own. The desire to hear and follow Jesus proves that you are His sheep.

     Again, It is noon. The downs are baking in the scorching glare, and every stone burns like fire; but in that oppressive hour the shepherd remembers a little green glen, where a tranquil lake reflects the azure sky, or a brooklet babbles musically over the pebbles. The grass is green and the boulders cast black shadows. Perhaps an old fold is there, with open doorway, so that the sheep may go in for shelter or out for pasture, till the shadows begin to climb stealthily up the hills.  Thus our Beloved makes His flock rest at noon. He is the secret place of the Most High, in whom our life is hidden. We can get pasture, abundant life, and salvation only by the Lord Jesus.

Lastly, It is evening. The sun is setting, the air is becoming chill, the valleys are deep in gloom. The shepherd hastens downward with his flock to the fold. They are descending together the last dark gorge, densely shadowed by foliage. Suddenly the ominous snarl and scream tell that a wolf has sprung from the thicket, and seized on one of the hindmost ewes or tender lambs; and then the shepherd rushes to the rear, prepared to lay down his life, if needs be, to save. And who can view the struggle which ensues between the shepherd and the wolf, without being reminded of the fourfold allusion of our Lord to the fact that He was about to lay down his life for the sheep.

Good does not mean benevolent and kind; but genuine and true. And its significance is pointed by the contrast with the thief and the hireling; by which it appears that the Good Shepherd is One who is imbued with the true spirit of His work, and is an enthusiast in it, not for pay or reward, but by the compulsion of the noble instincts of His soul.

      Robbers may turn shepherds, climbing the walls of the fold, or swooping down on the flock and driving it off…. But their purpose is for the flesh and fleece, to kill and to destroy. They have no more the true shepherd's heart than a bandit has a soldier's or a pirate a sailor's. Such were the thieves and robbers who came before the Good Shepherd, stealing from God His glory, from men their souls and goods.

What a contrast was the Savior, who expected no reward but hatred and a crown of thorns, a cross and a borrowed tomb, and whose supreme object was to give life, and to give it more abundantly--abundant as the flowers of May; exhaustless as the perennial fountains of His own being; infinite as the nature of God!

Why has He loved us thus? We cannot tell. It is a mystery which will forever baffle us; but love knows no reason, no law. Surely the Son of God might have discovered, or made, beings more worthy of His attachment. But it was not to be so. He has loved us with the greatest love of all, the love that recks not the cost of life; and there is nothing now of good which He will withhold from His own, His loved, His chosen and purchased flock.

"I know Mine own, and mine own know Me; even as the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father."

And it is just in this way, with a Divine, comprehensive, and perfect knowledge, that the Lord Jesus knows each of us. He is of a quick understanding to take in our past, with its sad and bitter failures, and our present with its unrealized longings. He knows our downsitting and uprising; our motives so often misunderstood; our anxieties, which cast their shadows over our lives; our dread; our hopes and fears. He intermeddles with the bitterness of our hearts, known only to us and Him. He scrutinizes each guest as it enters, and needs no census to tell Him the inmates of our hearts. "There is not a word on our tongue, but Thou, O Lord, knowest it altogether." It is very blessed to be known thus; so that we do not need to assume a disguise, or enter into labored explanations. He cannot be surprised, or taken unawares by anything we may tell Him.

“I give unto the eternal life, and they shall never perish.” When once that life has come to indwell the believer’s heart it must remain. Christ's sheep shall never perish. They may wander far from Him, lose all joy and comfort, fall under the rebuke of men, and seem to be living under a cloud; but, if they are really His, His honor is pledged to seek them out in the cloudy and dark day, and bring them back to Himself. His body cannot be dismembered; He cannot forfeit that which it has cost Him so much to purchase.

You may be a very lame and timid and worthless sheep; but you were purchased by the Shepherd’s blood, because He loved you so. There is not a wild beast in all hell that He has not vanquished and put beneath His feet; there is no fear, therefore, of His ability, as there in none of His love. He will deliver you from the lion and the bear, and bring you in triumph to the fold, with all the rest.

And so at last we shall be folded with all the flock beside in those sweet pasture lands, in which the Lamb leads His flock unto living fountains of water, and God wipes away all tears from our eyes.

F.B. MEYER

The Gospel of John

"My soul, move up to the top; let no stone be above thee; higher and higher; God awaits thee..."

“So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain.”

Exodus 34:2

For in the day of trouble

He shall hide me in His pavilion;

In the secret place of His tabernacle

He shall hide me;

He shall set me high upon a rock.

Psalm 27:5

Come away by yourself

And rest awhile,

For you are weary

 Of toil and strain.

Withdraw from the city

All the turmoil leave behind

Fly away like a dove,

Be with Me here.

Find life in the secret place

Alone with Me,

Peaceful and quiet,

Come be renewed.

Your Father watches,

From Heaven He sees;

His home, His abode

He makes in you.

Come, abide in My presence,

Rest in comfort and peace.

Receive healing, find forgiveness

Learn of Me, humble and meek. 

 C. TAYLOR

I am called to climb as far away from the world as I can. Surely the very place of meeting has meaning in it. For many a day I have not seen the top of the Mount. I have stood on the plain, or I have gone to the first cleft, or have tried a short way up the steep. I have not risen above the smoke of my own house, or the noise of my daily business. I have said, “In my climbing I must not lose sight of my family; I must be within call of my children; I must not go beyond the line of vegetation…” Thus I have not seen the top, nor have I entered into the secret place of the Most High. Oh that I might urge my way to the very top of the hill chosen of God! “What must it be to be there?” The wind will be music. The clouds will be as the dust of my feet. Earth and time will be seen as they are, in their littleness and their meanness. My soul, move up to the top; let no stone be above thee; higher and higher; God awaits thee, God calls thee, God will give thee rest! God means that the very climbing should do me good. He could come to me, but He bids me go to Him. There is mercy in the going. There is comfort on the road. The very weariness has a promise. The mountain is measured; God does not ask me to climb an unknown distance; He knows my strength, and He fixes the meeting-place within its limits.  This day I will see the sacred top. The enemy will try to turn me back, but I will meet him in the strength of my God, and abash him by the name of Christ. Lord, help me this day to see the very top of the Mount, and let my poor soul taste the sweetness of the liberty which is assured to it in Christ.

JOSEPH PARKER

“Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest..."

Jesus took with him Peter, John, and James, and went up the mountain to pray.

Luke 9:28

         And Jesus said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.)

Mark 6:31

I am coming, Lord,

Climbing up the mountain;

You’ve bid me to come away

And be with You there.

High above, where the air is clear

I’m surrounded by natural beauty;

And on that mount

There is peace.

I am coming, Lord,

Seeking Your glorious presence;

You alone

Have words of eternal life.

Promising my soul

Will find its rest;

I unload my heavy burdens,

For Yours is light.

I remember, Lord,

The mount where You died;

Bringing glory to the Father

In Your passion.

Your precious blood

Gave me everlasting life;

The darkness lifted,

As You rose in triumph.

I am here, Lord,

Beholding Your shining splendor;

Reigning from Your throne,

Ablaze with flames of fire.

Your kingdom come,

Your will be done on earth.

Praise You, for bringing me

Into Your kingdom of Light.

Show me Your glory, I pray!

The glory of the only begotten Son;

Let me behold Your glorious face

Shining like the sun in all its brilliance.

C. TAYLOR

The part which mountains play in the life of our Lord is interesting. The great sermon, the manifesto of the King, was delivered on a mount. On a mount He apparently often went to teach and to preach. We learn that on one occasion when He came nigh to the Sea of Galilee He went up into a mountain and sat down there and great multitudes came to Him. It is a no less significant fact that before choosing the Twelve He did the like. When He sought to escape from the unwise enthusiasm of the crowd after the miracle of the loaves the mountain was His refuge. Most of all He sought the solitude of the lonely hills for prayer. The mountains afforded Him His favorite oratory, where He spent whole nights in prayer. The impression which these statements make on us is that He was often up the mountain, lingering in its lonely recesses, and finding amid their grandeur and majesty that sympathy which He could not get in the busy haunts of men.

         Nowhere else do we get more completely away from the world and its influence than on a mountain. The literal fact that we are then above the world is deeply significant of the spiritual. The mountains are the true cloisters of the Church…On the mount, with the world literally at our feet and heaven all around us, we have the solitude which alone is endurable and which alone is inspiring; the solitude which Jesus found so desirable and which He constantly sought: a solitude which is lost in the consciousness of an innumerable company of angels, of the spirits of just men made perfect, and of the very presence of God Himself.

         But, you say, no mountain rises at my door; what must I do therefore? Undoubtedly this is your loss; there is nothing that can take its place. It has no substitute. And yet there is a Holy Mount accessible to all who care to climb it, just as every man finds his Gethsemane somewhere, even though it be not among olive trees. Every disciple may find the hill of God somewhere; it may be in his own house, it may be in the lofty cathedral, or it may be in the humblest of sanctuaries. If anywhere he can be alone with God, there he may find the Holy Mount. And it should be his holy ambition to reach its summit—to present himself to God at the top of the Mount, where he may enjoy the fullness of the blessing.

JAMES HASTINGS

Luke

June Devotional "Each tiny creature’s life.... is seen, and known..."

Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Matthew 10:29-31

Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God.

Luke 12:6

There’s a word of tender beauty

In the sayings of our Lord;

How it stirs the heart to music,

Waking gratitude’s sweet chord;

For it tells me that our Father,

From His throne of royal might,

Bends to note a falling sparrow,

For ’tis precious in His sight.

    In my Father’s blessèd keeping

I am happy, safe and free;

While His eye is on the sparrow,

I will not forgotten be.

ELIZA HEWITT

         It is significant that Christ marked with so much interest the more lowly and homely of the creatures around us. He does not say, ‘Consider the eagle’ –the monarch of the air, the symbol of empire and victory; or, ‘Consider the nightingale,’ the sweet bulbul that floods the Jordan banks and the shores of Galilee with passionate music…Who but Jesus would of dreamed of getting poetry and theology out of ravens and sparrows! Who but He would have compared Himself, as He did in the most pathetic utterance of His life, to a hen vainly calling her heedless brood to the shelter of her wings!  But this fashion of speech became Him who was ‘meek and lowly in heart’; and who, moreover, being one with the Author of Nature, interprets best her deepest and simplest lessons.

         That Christ should have thus had an eye and a heart for ‘the lilies’ and for sparrows and chickens, being what He was, and having such an errand in the world as He had, is in fact full of instruction in itself, and profoundly reassuring as an index to the mind of God. Such language from His lips should help to correct our pride and thoughtlessness, and teach us a faith more considerate and humane, more open-eyed to the kindly and affecting aspects of the daily life of Nature, while it serves to enlarge and deepen our views of the universal providence of God.

         We are apt to fancy that the value, which we put upon a creature so small and so abundant as a sparrow, is the value which God puts upon it. We do not think much of it because it is so common, and therefore we suppose that God does not think much of it. But there cannot be a greater mistake. The very commonness of a thing is just the best proof of its high value in God’s sight.

         The little bird mentioned is most insignificant; and the Lord selected it, just for its insignificance, to bring out thereby a truth which overwhelms the reason. He took out of His immense universe an object so poor, so small, that nothing could be less important, to illustrate the truth on which the system of Christian morals is built. And the truth is this: God is in intelligent relation with everything that exists; there are, practically, no limits to His providence; and in the universe nothing is so minute as to be overlooked or forgotten. ‘Not one of them is forgotten.’ That is a marvel, a miracle of knowledge. But more than knowledge is in the phrase ‘not forgotten.’ It implies a knowledge which lasts, though the thing known may no longer exist; care, consideration, particulars retained in the faithful memory. In the ephemeral history of the poor little bird of whom the great God and Savior deigned to speak not one item is forgotten. Each tiny creature’s life, in all its extent, is seen, and known, and borne in mind by Him to whom it owes that life.

         The providence, the knowledge, the unforgetting, the all-remembering, perpetual vision, must cover the entire life of each creature, and all the things that live, and all that has been and shall be…’all things’ in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, ‘are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do’; not to believe this is practically to be left without God in this world or the next.

JAMES HASTINGS

Luke

May Devotional: "He pursues the thankless with offers of grace..."

 Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days.  Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.

Ecclesiastes 11:1-2

Something, my God, for Thee,

Something for Thee:

That each day’s setting sun may bring

Some penitential offering;

In Thy dear name some kindness done;

In Thy dear love some wanderer won;

Some trial meekly borne for Thee,

Dear Lord, for Thee.

 Something, my God, for Thee,

Something for Thee:

That to Thy gracious throne may rise

Sweet incense from some sacrifice–

Uplifted eyes undimmed by tears,

Uplifted faith unstained by fears,

Hailing each joy as light from Thee,

Dear Lord, from Thee.

 Something, my God, for Thee,

Something for Thee:

For the great love that Thou hast given,

For the great hope of Thee and heaven.

My soul! her first allegiance brings,

And upward plumes her heavenward wings,

Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee.

SYLVANUS PHELPS

         I  believe that no Church can expect to prosper, or to get God’s blessing, that does not try to do good to bless unbelievers. There is still another reason, personal to myself and therefore somewhat selfish, a desire to keep myself in work, and not get rusty in the quiet of a country parish. With some spare time on my hands why not employ it in doing some little good in God’s world, even though it should entail labour and trouble and botheration. One day or other the world will slip through our fingers, and all we hold dearest in it. Only the good we have done will remain. That cannot pass away. It is written down in the memory of God, registered in the books of His Divine Retribution.  We will need it all when we come to give in our account of our service and go to get our wages—our love, and kindliness and faith, and unselfishness, and well-doing—we will need it all and more than all when God puts the question to us: ‘Of what use have you been in My world? What have you done with the talents and the time I gave you?’

REV. JAMES MACGREGOR

Life and Letters

But let us remember how God’s work and gifts are unappreciated. The multitude crowds into the music-hall and gazes with rapture on some vulgar stage scenery painted in glaring ochres, whilst God’s bright landscapes full of perfect beauty solicit their eye in vain. There is a great crush in the public gardens to witness an exhibition of fire-works—small tricks in saltpetre; but the eager crowd turns its back on the moon walking in brightness and God’s heaven sown with stars. And men treat God’s government and grace as they do His handiwork, ignoring Him who is wonderful in counsel, excellent in working. Yet for all this He does not suspend His beneficent action; He continues His glorious and generous administration, whatever may be the response of His creatures. He makes His sun to shine upon the evil and the good, His rain to descend upon the just and the unjust, despite the thanklessness of the far greater portion of those who are so richly and undeservedly blessed. How largely the sublime work of the Lord Jesus is unrecognized! “Where are the nine?” is a mournful question still on our Master’s lips. But He does not fail, neither is He discouraged because of the blindness and heartlessness of those whom He suffered to redeem; He pursues the thankless with offers of grace and blessing. We are far too anxious about acknowledgments and congratulations. It is natural, perhaps, that we should suffer some sense of disappointment, but have we not considerations and motives to lift us far above such discontent? It is rather the gratitude than the apathy of men that should leave us mourning. Let us work in the spirit of a noble faith and consecration, knowing that what we give and suffer will be lightly esteemed among men.

There is no labour lost

Though it seem tossed

Into the deepest sea.

In dark and dreary nights,

’Mid stormy flash of lights,

It cometh back to thee.

Fear not to labour, then,

Nor say, “I threw my time away!”

It is for God, not men,

To count the cost and pay.

J. HAMILTON

JAMES HASTINGS

Ecclesiastes

Easter Devotional ~"Christ the Lord is risen, our Joy that hath no end."

“Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”          

 Revelation 1:18

'Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.  For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.  The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.'

Song of Solomon 2:10-12

Now let the heavens be joyful!

Let earth the song begin!

Let the round world keep triumph,

And all that is therein!

Let all things seen and unseen,

Their notes of gladness blend,

For Christ the Lord is risen,

Our Joy that hath no end.

 John of Damascus A.D. 760

     "The time of the singing of birds is come,"--the time when nature calls aloud to us and bids us awaken out of the deadness of personal grief, and rejoice in the new manifestation of His beauty that God is making to the world.  "Behold, I am alive for evermore, and the dead live to Me."  Was not this the secret saying which the new verdure was writing all over the hills, and which the young pattering leaves and singing-birds were repeating in music?  It must be well to have ears to hear and a heart that could respond with a little flutter of returning joy and thankfulness.

 ANNIE KEARY

 (1825-1879)

The Lord of all, Himself through all diffused,

Sustains and is the life of all that lives.

Nature is but a name for an effect,

Whose cause is God…

One spirit, His

Who wore the platted thorns with bleeding brows,

Rules universal nature. Not a flower

But shows some touch, in freckle, streak, or stain,

Of His unrivall'd pencil.  He inspires

Their balmy odours, and imparts their hues,

And bathes their eyes with nectar, and includes,

In grains as countless as the seaside sands,

The forms with which He sprinkles all the earth.

Happy who walks with Him! whom what he finds

Of flavour or of scent in fruit or flower,

Or what he views of beautiful or grand

In nature, from the broad majestic oak

To the green blade that twinkles in the sun,

Prompts with remembrance of a present God.

His presence, Who made all so fair, perceived,

Makes all still fairer.  As with Him no scene

Is dreary, so with Him all seasons please.

WILLIAM COWPER

The Task

Good Friday Devotional ~Oh, sad hearts and suffering! Look to the cross of Christ.

He is despised and rejected by men,

​​A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…

 ​ ​​Surely He has borne our griefs

​​And carried away our sorrows…

​​ ​​But He was wounded for our transgressions,

​​He was crushed for our iniquities;

​​The chastening for our peace fell upon Him,

​​And by His stripes we are healed.

ISAIAH 53: 3,4,5

O, Jesus, You know our deepest trials,

You bore the grief of our fallen world.

Your Body was pierced, Your heart full of sorrow;

Our sins fell upon You, so we can be restored.

I am a wind-blown reed, weakened and bruised;

You'll not break me, nor quench my flickering flame.

You were crushed and wounded to make me new;

Jesus, my heart overflows for Your Cross of grace.

C.A. Taylor

Oh, sad hearts and suffering!  Anxious and weary ones!  Look to the cross of Christ.  There hung your King!  The King of sorrowing souls, and more, the King of Sorrows.  Ay, pain and grief, tyranny and desertion, death and hell—He has faced them one and all, and tried their strength, and taught them His, and conquered them right royally.  And since He hung upon that torturing cross, sorrow is divine, godlike, as joy itself.  All that mans fallen nature dreads and despises, God honoured on the cross, and took unto Himself, and blest and consecrated forever. And now blessed are the poor, if they are poor in heart as well as purse; for Jesus was poor, and theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are the hungry, if they hunger for righteousness as well as food; for Jesus hungered, and they shall be filled.  Blessed are those who mourn, if they mourn not only for their sorrows, but for their sins; for Jesus mourned for our sins, and on the cross He was made sin for us, who knew no sin; and they shall be comforted.  Blessed are those who are ashamed of themselves, and hate themselves, and humble themselves before God, for on the cross Jesus humbled Himself; and they shall be exalted.  Blessed are the forsaken and despised; did not all men forsake Jesus in His hour of need?  And why not thee, too, thou poor deserted one?  No.  Every one that is perfect must be as his Master.

CHARLES KINGSLEY

Continually at every heart He is knocking, asking to be taken in as the supreme object of love.  "Will you have Me," He says to the believer, "to be yours?  Will you follow Me into suffering and loneliness and ask for no reward but My smile of approval and My word of praise?  Will you be content with pleasing Me, and Me only? May I have My way with you in all things?  Will you accept Me for your heavenly Bridegroom and leave all others to cleave only unto Me?"

H.W. SMITH

God is Enough