— unbeliever is just on breath away from hell.

“And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide:….”—Gen 24:63

We should be better Christians if we were more alone; we should do more if we attempted less, and spent more time in retirement, and quiet waiting upon God. The world is too much with us; we are afflicted with the idea that we are doing nothing unless we are fussily running to and fro; we do not believe in “the calm retreat, the silent shade.” As a people, we are of a very practical turn of mind; “we believe,” as someone has said, “in having all our irons in the fire, and consider the time not spent between the anvil and the fire as lost, or much the same as lost.” Yet no time is more profitably spent than that which is set apart for quiet musing, for talking with God, for looking up to Heaven. We cannot have too many of these open spaces in life, hours in which the soul is left accessible to any sweet thought or influence it may please God to send.

“Reverie,” it has been said, “is the Sunday of the mind.” Let us often in these days give our mind a “Sunday,” in which it will do no manner of work but simply lie still, and look upward, and spread itself out before the Lord like Gideon’s fleece, to be soaked and moistened with the dews of Heaven. Let there be intervals when we shall do nothing, think nothing, plan nothing, but just lay ourselves on the green lap of nature and “rest awhile.”

Time so spent is not lost time. The fisherman cannot be said to be losing time when he is mending his nets, nor the mower when he takes a few minutes to sharpen his scythe at the top of the ridge. City men cannot do better than follow the example of Isaac, and, as often as they can, get away from the fret and fever of life into fields. Wearied with the heat and din, the noise and bustle, communion with nature is very grateful; it will have a calming, healing influence. A walk through the fields, a saunter by the seashore or across the daisy-sprinkled meadows, will purge your life from sordidness, and make the heart beat with new joy and hope.

“The little cares that fretted me,
I lost them yesterday,
… Out in the fields with God.” —Streams in the Desert

“Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”– 2 Peter 3:18

When I speak of growth in grace, I only mean an increase in the degree, size, strength, vigor and power — of the graces which the Holy Spirit plants in a believer’s heart. I hold that every one of those graces admits of growth, progress and increase. I hold that repentance, faith, hope, love, humility, zeal, courage and the like — may be . . .
little — or great,
strong — or weak,
vigorous — or feeble, and
may vary greatly in the same person at different periods of his life.

When I speak of a man growing in grace, I mean simply that . . .
his sense of sin is becoming deeper,
his faith is becoming stronger,
his hope is becoming brighter,
his love is becoming more extensive,
his spiritual-mindedness is becoming more marked,
he feels more of the power of godliness in his own heart — and he manifests more of it in his life.– J.C.Ryle, 1879

“…..And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”–Luke 6:30–31

Charles Spurgeon was the most famous preacher in the world during his lifetime. But there were many other well-known preachers with large churches in London. One of them was pastored by a man named Joseph Parker. At one point, Spurgeon ran a large orphanage to take care of children who had no parents, and Parker made a remark about the awful lives those children faced. The remark was reported publicly as a criticism of the conditions inside Spurgeon’s orphanages.

A furious Spurgeon went to the pulpit and harshly criticized Parker. The sermon was, as were all of Spurgeon’s sermons, printed in the papers, and London eagerly awaited the following Sunday to see how Parker would respond. Rather than refuting what Spurgeon had said, Parker simply announced to the packed auditorium that they were going to take up a special offering for Spurgeon’s orphanages. The ushers had to empty the offering plates three times! Later that week Spurgeon arrived at Parker’s office and said, “Parker, you have practiced grace on me. You have given me not what I deserved, you have given me what I needed.”

Every day as we interact with others, we face the choice of how we will treat them. Will we respond in kind to attacks, criticism, and harsh words? Will we respond in kind, trying to get even and prove we cannot be taken advantage of? Or will we defer our anger, even if it is justified, and allow God to settle any scores that need to be made right? Paul wrote, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19).–Daily in the Word

“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved , bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Colossians 3:12

Nothing is more worth while, than kindness. Nothing else in life is more beautiful in itself. Nothing else does more to brighten the world, and sweeten other lives.

Robert Louis Stevenson said in a letter: “It is our kindnesses, that alone makes the world tolerable. If it were not for that—I would be tempted to think that our life is a practical jest in the worst possible spirit.”

The man whose life lacks habitual kindliness may succeed splendidly in a worldly sense. He may win his way to high honor. He may gather his millions. He may climb to a conspicuous place among men. But he has missed that which alone gives beauty to a life—the joy and blessing of being kind. There are men who are so intent on winning the race, that they have neither eye nor heart nor hand for the human needs along the wayside. Here and there is one, however, who thinks more of the humanities, than of the personal success; that woos him forward, and who turns aside in his busiest hour to give help and cheer to those who need.

There is always this difference in men. There are those who have only one purpose in life, the making of their own career. They fix their eye upon their goal, and press toward it with indomitable persistence, utterly unheeding the calls and appeals of human need which break upon their ears. They fail altogether in love’s duty. They dwarf and deaden the qualities which are divinest in their nature.

Far nobler are those who, while earnest and diligent in business—yet let the law of love rule in their lives and are ever ready to forget themselves and sacrifice their own personal interest in order to do good to others. He who leaves ‘love for others’ out of his life-plan, leaves God out too, for love is the first thing in Godlikeness.–J. R. Miller