by J R Miller
July 1
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. - Romans 6:18
We must serve some one. If we are not under one master we must be under another. Becoming a Christian is changing masters; it is coming out from under the yoke of sin and accepting the sway of Christ.
We have it here: "Being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness." Paul was himself an illustration of this. He was on his way to Damascus, breathing slaughter against the Christians.
Like a flash appeared before him a glorious Being who could not be less than divine. "Who art Thou?" "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." Instantly Saul saw what a terrible mistake he had been making, and at once he was at the feet of Him whom he had been persecuting. He had a new Master, and his whole life was surrendered.
Too many people, when they accept Christ, do not bring their whole life with them. Paul did, and that is what every one who follows Christ should do. We should become as earnest as Christians as we were before in our service of the world.
July 2
It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. - Romans 7:17
Paul shows us a vision of his inner life, and we see a fierce struggle going on.
The two men in him were utterly different in their character and aim. "Not what I would, that do I practice; but what I hate, that I do." His better self approved the right, but the other self, which seemed the stronger, did the wrong. "So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me."
The good that was struggling in him was the new life, Christ in him, and the other self was sin that was fighting hard not to be driven out. For the time the evil seemed the stronger.
"To will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. For the good which I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I practice." We understand this if we are really striving to live a holy life.
A prayer of Fenelon's runs, "Lord, take me, for I cannot give myself to Thee; and when Thou hast me, keep me, for I cannot keep myself; and save me in spite of myself."
July 3
Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. - Romans 8:15
When we put ourselves under the yoke of Christ, He is able to free us from the old evil nature.
"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." What we should do when we find some sin struggling in us for the mastery is to refer the matter to Christ. He is stronger than the strongest evil. He met all powers and overcame them all. He is able to overcome also for us. He is a proved Saviour. The Spirit of God dwells in us.
"If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." But if Christ lives in us we need never give way to any evil influence.
We have here a plain rule which will make it easy for us to know whether we are living right or not: "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." This again starts us in a chain of wonderful privileges. "We are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ."
July 4
We know that all things work together for good to them that love God. - Romans 8:28
People often ask how there can be good in everything.
Here is the answer. "We know that to them that love God, all things will work together so as to bring good to us.
It may not seem that this or that particular experience can yield good. But God is able to combine this seemingly harmful thing with other things, and from the combination bring good. The selling of Joseph by his brothers was a black crime, and an observer would have said the evil never could be turned to good. Yet we know the sequel. "The Lord meant it for good."
A lady showed Mr. Ruskin a handkerchief on which some careless person had dropped a drop of ink. Mr. Ruskin took the handkerchief away and returned it in a few days with an India ink engraving on it, using the ugly blot as the basis of the design.
So God will take the blots in our lives and change them into beauty, if only we love Him and are faithful.
July 5
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. - Romans 9:15
It is a great honor to be chosen by God for some noble position or some great service.
Abraham was chosen from among all the men of his age to be the beginner of a family that would serve the Lord and become the inheritors of His grace. Jacob was chosen to be the father of the people of God to whom the divine revelations might be entrusted.
Jesus chose twelve men to be His apostles, that they might be trained and thus be prepared to become His witnesses after He was gone. Christ is always choosing men and women for special duties and special responsibilities.
Indeed He is always choosing us for something good or something beautiful; sometimes for joy, sometimes for sorrow. "Ye did not choose Me," He says to us, "but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide."
Whatever it may be for which we are chosen, so far as condition and experience may go, we know that the Master's final desire is that we may bear fruit in love and service.
July 6
The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart. - Romans 10:8
Many people never find what they seek, because they do not seek it where it is. They travel far to look for something, which is waiting at their very feet.
They want to find Christ in their needs and heart-hungers, and they strain their eyes looking for Him in the heavens, while all the time He is close to them, closer than the air. "Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down)… The word is nigh thee." Always Christ is nigh, and we never need to look for Him far off.
A monk was praying for a vision of Christ. A little child came to his door and cried for help, but the monk had no time for the child - he was watching for the vision, which did not appear. At the close of the day he learned that Christ came in the little child, called, sobbed, was refused, and went away.
We should look close to ourselves always for the thing we seek. We need only to listen any moment to hear the voice we want to hear.
July 7
Hath God cast away His people? God forbid. - Romans 11:1
God never casts off any one. His love never fails.
Sometimes people speak as if He had cast off the Jewish people, but He did not - He never did. The trouble was that they cast God off. Yet even at the darkest hour there was a remnant of them who were faithful and received the blessing.
God never fails in His promises. His word is "The mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but My loving kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall My covenant of peace be removed, saith Jehovah that hath mercy on thee." This covenant of peace never has been broken with any one who trusted in God.
But there are two parties to every covenant. God's promises are conditioned on our obedience. If we fail in our part, it is we who break the covenant. Then when the blessings promised do not come, we cannot say God has forgotten us.
The truth is, we have forsaken God, and the blessings of His love have been withdrawn because we have rejected them.
July 8
Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. - Romans 12:1
Doctrines are the roots from which duties grow.
After eleven chapters of severe logic, the strongest kind of strong meat, we have now five chapters of the most practical sort of teaching. Roots are necessary to beautiful plants, and doctrines are necessary to duties. Moralities without doctrines at the back of them are rootless plants.
The two phrases, "a little sacrifice," and "be ye transformed," give us the key of all the beautiful lessons in this chapter. We are to give ourselves to Christ as a sacrifice laid upon the altar, and are to grow into all divine loveliness of disposition and character.
In becoming Christians we become members of the body of Christ. This implies that it is the life of Christ that is in us, and that it is the life of Christ that is in us, and that we must be like Him, since we are animated by His life.
We can realize this beauty of life only by surrendering ourselves wholly to Christ, thus becoming in fact members of Him. Then shall we be in reality transformed into the likeness of Christ.
July 9
Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. - Romans 13:8
It may be worth our while to linger to-day on one duty suggested in our reading - to keep out of debt. "Owe no man anything."
There is much need that this lesson should be enforced. There are many Christian people whose consciences need toning up on this subject. They think nothing of borrowing money. Those who are reputed to be kind-hearted have a great many requests to lend.
It is not only in time of pressing need that people want to borrow, but ofttimes in order to provide luxuries. Then the next easy step is to become careless in repaying. Some do return their loans on the day, but many never repay at all. It is a fatal habit to fall into - this of borrowing and not paying.
It is ruinous to character, for when one has become able to do it without worrying - letting the other person do the worrying - one has run down to a low moral state.
Then the penalty on the man who does not pay his debts is inexorably exacted by society.
July 10
Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? - Romans 14:4
The law of love requires us continually to give up our rights and liberties for the sake of other people. We are not to hold others to our way of thinking. We are never to despise any one's conscientious scruples, but are always to honor them. "Who art thou that judgest the servant of another? To his lord he standeth or falleth."
There are some people who thoughtlessly make it very hard for those who are troubled in conscious about doing certain things or indulging in certain pleasures. Every one must follow his own conscience, and it is very wrong for us to worry any one concerning his conscientious opinions.
Our chief thought should be not to put a stumbling-block in any one's way. So we must be ready to give up anything, however right it may seem to us, that might lead another, a weaker person, to stumble into sin.
The Christian who is not ready to give up any habit of his for the sake of others, has not yet learned the meaning of the great law of love, "Love seeketh not its own."
July 11
Let us therefore follow after the things… wherewith one may edify another. - Romans 14:19
Paul has a great deal to say in his epistles about edifying.
We are to follow after things whereby we may edify one another. "Edify" is an architectural word. To edify is to build up. We are builders. Human lives everywhere are unfinished buildings, and every one who passes by lays a block on the wall or adds an ornament to the structure.
A hundred people touch you each day, in business contracts, in social fellowships, in friendships, in letters, in transient meetings, and every one of them builds something on the wall of your life, either something that will add to the adornment of your character or something that will mar and disfigure it.
Every one who comes into our presence even for a moment, who speaks a word to us, even every one who reaches us most remotely with his influence, leaves some line of beauty or some mark of marring on our character.
We are exhorted to be careful that in all we do to others we really edify them.
July 12
I beseech you, …that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. - Romans 15:30
Happy is he who has friends who pray for him.
Paul earnestly beseeches his friends to pray for him. He felt constant need of remembrance in prayer. There is nothing our friends could do for us that would mean half so much to us as to speak our names to God.
A little boy, after family worship, conducted by a guest, in which the child's name had been mentioned, said to his mother, "I am so glad Dr. Lyman told God my name. He'll know me now when He sees me."
There is great comfort in knowing that others pray for us. Then there is no way in which we can help others so wisely as by praying for them. We do not know what our friends need. Our way of trying to help them may do them more harm than good. We may relieve them of burdens or cares that God wanted them to keep and carry for a while, for their own good.
If, however, we ask God to help them by making them strong, He will do for them only that which is best.
July 13
Salute the beloved Persis, which labored much in the Lord. - Romans 16:12
This is one of the chapters a good many Bible readers think they can skip with impunity.
It is little but a list of names of people we do not know anything about. Really, however, there are no chapters we can afford to miss. In this sixteenth chapter of Romans there is a good deal more than a list of names. Each mention of a person has a condensed biography attached to it.
It is wonderful how much we will know about these Roman Christians when we meet them in heaven, if only we make a study of all that we are told about them here.
Take one name as illustration. "Salute Persis the beloved, who labored much in the Lord." She was "beloved," a women of such sweet life that, like John, she was called "the beloved." She had "labored" - past tense; now she was laid aside, perhaps a shut-in. She had "labored much" - constantly, not sparing herself. It was "in the Lord" that she had labored - that she had wrought so faithfully.
July 14
There is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. - 1 Corinthians 6:7
Christians ought to live together in love. They should never quarrel among themselves. They are brethren, and brother should not have strife with brother. If they have differences, they should settle them among themselves, and not go to law before unbelievers.
Paul said it was a defect in the Corinthian Christians, that they had lawsuits one with another. He intimates that they should rather take wrong, and even be defrauded, than go to law for redress.
Jesus also taught that His followers should not resist him that was evil. When one smites them on one cheek, they should turn to him the other also. Retaliation is certainly forbidden, and so is resentment.
Then we need not fear that we will go too far "in letting" people wrong us rather than go to law to get our rights. We must be very sure, however, that we do not do wrong to others. Some people are more watchful over the way others treat them than of their own treatment of others.
July 15
As the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. - 1 Corinthians 7:17
The religion of Christ touches every phase of life.
No question of duty can ever arise, but the gospel has a bearing upon it. It teaches great principles which apply to all relations of life. There is a Christian way of meeting every experience.
Paul shows in this chapter how a Christian should act in certain matters with which some might say religion has nothing to do. We may learn that there is no path on which Christ does not walk with us.
The Rev. Dr. W. J. Dawson preached a sermon on "the unavoidable Christ."
We never can get away from Him. There is no part of the world where we would be beyond His authority. There is no experience of life in which we do not need to ask Him what He would have us do. There are no possible relationships in which the teaching of Christ has no word of duty for us. There are no tasks in which we do not need to have His help. There are no lines of duty in which we do not need the light of His Spirit.
July 16
If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth. - 1 Corinthians 8:13
It is not enough to know that a certain course is not wrong, that we have a right to do certain things.
If there were no other people in the world but ourselves, none to be considered in deciding what we might do or may not do, it would be easy to settle on our duty. But there are other people everywhere, and we have got to think of them in deciding what we have a right to do.
A man has a right to have a big, bawling talking-machine in his house, and to have it going every night till midnight. It is nobody's matter but his own. But suppose there is a sick man living next door, and that the noise of the machine disturbs him at night, what is the duty of the man with the talking-machine?
Love comes in then, and tells him he must give up his "right" and sacrifice his pleasure for the sake of another. Love is a most exacting master. It makes us give up our rights and our pride and our ease - nothing can stand before it.
July 17
It were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void. - 1 Corinthians 9:15
Dr. George MacDonald says somewhere that the grandest thing about our rights is that being our own we can give them up if we wish.
Paul asserts that he had certain undisputed rights as an apostle, a minister of Christ. He quotes Old Testament law to prove it. It was forbidden to muzzle the ox when he was treading out the corn. It was not merely the ox that was in God's mind when he gave this law, but His own servants. They had a right to support from those for whom they labored. Yet Paul had renounced his rights in this regard. He preached the gospel without charge.
A great many pastors and Christian workers do the same in whole or in part. All who love Christ should be ready to make every needful sacrifice in doing His work, in carrying His gospel to others.
The Church seems to be waking up now to the greatness of its responsibility for the salvation of the world. We should shrink from no toil or cost in winning souls.
July 18
So run, that ye may obtain. - 1 Corinthians 9:24
Christian life is not meant to be easy. We must pay the price for any success we may achieve.
The schoolboy, if he would win honors, must work hard for them. In the ancient games those who ran in the race bent every energy to reach the goal. Those who were to take part in athletic contests of any kind prepared for the struggle by the most rigorous self-discipline, so that their bodies might be strong for whatever they would do.
Paul, however, is not giving advice, nor laying down rules for athletes, but uses these contests to illustrate what the Christians must do. He will meet temptations at every point. But temptations are not meant to be danger-points in life - they are meant to be opportunities for growing strong.
We must make up our mind to the fact that the harder our struggles are, the greater honor and power are set before us to be won. And there will come to us no temptation but such as we can bear, and God will help us always to be victorious.
July 19
Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. - 1 Corinthians 10:31
Nothing in life is left out - "whatsoever ye do." It extends even to eating and drinking. We are to do all things to the glory of God. This means that we must do everything in a way that will please Him.
To eat to the glory of God is to recognize Him as the Giver of our daily bread, to seek His blessing on it, to eat according to the divine laws, eating to be ready for the best service, and then to use all our strength in doing the work, which God gives us to do.
One who eats self-indulgently or gluttonously, or who eats food that is injurious to his health, or who does not use the strength he derives from his food in living obediently, is not glorifying God.
In all our life, in everything we do, we are to think of what will honor God. We are to seek first His kingdom and righteousness, which includes the law of love - the things that will bless those about us.
Selfishness never glorifies God, but He is always pleased with the love that seeketh not its own.
July 20
This do in remembrance of Me. - 1 Corinthians 11:24
The Lord's Supper is the most sacred of the ordinances of Christian worship. It is a service of memorial - "This do in remembrance of Me."
Jesus showed His humanness in His desire to be remembered. It is one proof of immortality that we cannot bear to think of being forgotten.
Jesus wants us to remember Him, however, not merely at His table, now and then, but all the while. If we keep Him thus ever in memory it will bless our lives in many ways. It will transform us into His likeness; thinking much of others makes us like them. It will keep us from doing wrong or sinful things.
Even the picture of a good man makes us ashamed to do things he would disapprove. Remembering Christ keeps our hearts warm with love for Him. We are kept in mind of the sweetness of His love and of all that He has done for us, and we are constrained to love Him.
Remembering Christ will make us happy, for we shall never forget that He is our Friend and is with us all the days.
July 21
There are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. - 1 Corinthians 12:4
People differ greatly in their gifts and capacities. It is wisely ordered that they do. If all had the same gifts, one kind of work would be overdone and other kinds would not be done at all. But as there are countless things needing to be done, so there is the greatest variety in the abilities of people, and thus there is a hand for every task.
The capacity for usefulness that we have is not accidental. "To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal." We should never forget that our ability is god's gift to us. This ought to save us from envying others who have abilities that seem more brilliant than ours.
God gave them their capacities and God gave us ours. He had a reason - He wanted us to do a certain kind of work, to fill a certain place, and He had another place and work for them. All we need to do is to make the most of the ability God has given us, and to do the best work we can do.
July 22
The greatest of these is charity. - 1 Corinthians 13:13
Love is the greatest of all the Spirit's gifts.
The power to love is the best of all the powers God has bestowed upon us. The lesson of love is taught us in this chapter in words we should memorize and never forget. "Love suffereth long, and is kind." Love is very patient with those who may not be gentle or thoughtful.
Nothing makes it bitter or resentful. It is kind, not to the good only, but also to the evil. "Love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly." It is humble and lowly, not proud. It is not envious of those who seem to be more highly favored. It is sweet-tempered, does not fly into a passion, and never acts rudely. "Love seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil."
It forgets self altogether, and seeks only the good of others. It sees the good in others, and not the faults and defects. It does not rejoice in the failure or misfortune of others, but in their success. It beareth all things, endureth all things - never faileth.
July 23
Now is Christ risen from the dead. - 1 Corinthians 15:20
The resurrection of Christ is the key-stone of the arch of gospel truth.
Paul makes it very plain that if the resurrection did not take place, there is no salvation. "If Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, …your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ have perished." All the hopes of Christian faith waited those three days at the sealed grave of Jesus. "But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of them that are asleep."
Then because He hath been raised, your faith is not vain, and all your hopes are sure and eternal; you are not in your sins, the redemption was accepted; then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have not perished, but are alive forevermore.
Christ rose as the first-fruits of the great harvest, and all who sleep in Him shall come too at the end of the day. The first-fruit was a pledge that it would be gathered in and a sample of what the final harvest would be.
July 24
How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come? - 1 Corinthians 15:35
There is a great mystery about the future life.
What kind of bodies will our dead have when they come again? We do not know. All that people tell us in trying to answer the question is only a guess, for no one has been through the gate and come back again to tell us of the experience - no one but Jesus Himself.
Paul's answer about the seed means that the body which will come again will be the same, yet not the same. The very seed sown does not come up, but something more lovely, a plant with life and foliage, blossoms and fruit.
This tells us that the body of the resurrection will be far more beautiful than the body we lay in the grave. In another place Paul tells us that the body of our humiliation shall be fashioned anew, that it may safely leave all this in the hands of God, to whom belong all secret things, assured that no mind can conceive the blessing God has prepared for us.
July 25
Now concerning the collection. - 1 Corinthians 16:1
It is remarkable that the next sentence, after the conclusion of the wonderful chapter about the resurrection of Christ and His people, begins - "Now concerning the collection."
It seems at first like a startling descent from the sublime truths of the resurrection and immortality to "the collection." But at the back of even the smallest duty lie all the glorious truths of Christianity.
Then we should not think of "the collection" in a church service as a minor or unimportant part of the worship. The collection of which St. Paul spoke here was for the saints who were suffering in famine, and he called upon their brothers to share their plenty with them. That was a sacred and holy duty.
Always the collection is important - it is an offering to God. The giving is part of the worship, and not a secular interruption of the service. We should give our money to God just as we give our praise, our love. The collection is holy, and should be taken reverently. Jesus sits over against the treasury, and sees how men give.
July 26
Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort. - 2 Corinthians 1:4
No message of the Bible is more universally needed in this world than the message of comfort. Many we meet every day are in sorrow. They may wear no weeds of mourning, but not all sorrow hangs out its token.
Our lesson to-day is one of comfort.
First, we are reminded of God's comfort - "who comforteth us in all our affliction." He is called the "God of all comfort." Then we are told that one reason He comforts us is, "that we may be able to comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." Part of our work in this world, therefore, is to be comforters of others. The comfort we get from God we are to pass on.
One reason we are called or permitted to suffer is that we may become comforters. This is one of the blessings of sorrow: we are prepared in it for being helpers of others.
We should be willing to suffer, that we may receive God's comfort, and then go out to comfort others.
July 27
That ye might know the love, which I have more abundantly unto you. - 2 Corinthians 2:4
It is sometimes the duty of love to cause pain to those who are dear. Paul made his friends sorry, but it was that he might make them glad afterwards.
If we see a friend doing that, which is wrong, and say not a word to seek to win him back, we have failed in our faithfulness. Our silence encourages him in his evil course. Yet it is not easy to tell others of their mistakes and sins. It requires great love and wisdom to do it in such a way that it will not do harm rather than good.
Paul tells us how he did this delicate duty. "Out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears." He reveals also his motive." Not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you." We are never ready to tell another of his sin unless we love him.
One minister asked another one Monday what he preached on the day before. "The wrath of God," was the answer. "Did you do it tenderly?" his friend asked.
July 28
Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us. - 2 Corinthians 3:3
It is a great thing to have the pen of a ready writer and to have it consecrated to Christ.
There are few ways in which one may do more good in the world than by writing letters to those whom one would help. Paul was a great letter-writer. When he could not visit the churches, he would write to them, giving them advice, comforting, cheering, and instructing them.
Paul speaks here of another kind of letters that he wrote - letters written on people's lives. We may write letters of this kind too. Every time we put anew thought into any other heart, we have written a letter, which will be read wherever the person goes. A new society has been started called "The league of the Golden Pen,"
Its motto is, "I write a letter at least once a month, in the spirit of Christ, to stranger, friend, or kin, to give cheer, courage, or counsel." The thought is a beautiful one, and those who read these words could do nothing better than begin to follow this rule.
July 29
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. - 2 Corinthians 4:8
We who are Christians should strive always to live a victorious life.
Of course we will have our burdens, our struggles, our trials, our sufferings, but we should never be defeated or crushed by them. Our Scripture to-day sets the lesson for us. "We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair; … smitten down, yet not destroyed." Our Master overcame the world. He was never once defeated.
He wants us to live the same way. Of course we cannot do it ourselves, un-helped, but we may get help from Him, and be "more than conquerors through Him that loved us." Even if our physical life is broken, exhausted, destroyed, that need not be defeat. "Though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day."
We have a glorious life within us, which nothing in this world can touch. "We know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, …eternal, in the heavens."
July 30
We labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him. - 2 Corinthians 5:9
The Christian should always be a worker for his Master.
"We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though god were in-treating by us.' The mission of every one who believes and is saved is to be a winner of other souls. Our life itself should be a gospel of divine grace, so full of love that every one who comes under our influence, even casually, shall hear a silent message, pleading, " Be ye reconciled to God.'
The life must always be such an ambassador, first, before we speak a word. The most eloquent pleading will have no effect in winning others to Christ unless the love of Christ be first shown in our life.
"God loves you and I love you," is the only evangel that will reach our hearts. You cannot kindle fire with ice. A selfish man cannot preach a gospel of love to others. The love of God, which we declare, must be interpreted in human love, which we show in our own eager interest in others.
We must bear the cross in our own life, or we need not talk about the cross on Calvary.
July 31
God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforteth us by the coming of Titus. - 2 Corinthians 7:6
However much we experience of the love of Christ, we all need human love.
Paul lived very close to his Master. No man ever had more of Christ. Yet Paul's epistles show continually a longing for human sympathy, and a need for the human touch in their lives. He is telling here of the weight that was upon him in Macedonia. "Our flesh had no relief, but we were afflicted on every side."
Then he tells of a great blessing, which God sent. "Nevertheless He that comforteth the lowly, even God, comforted us by the coming of Titus." Titus was a dear friend, and his coming gave the apostles new courage.
We are all alike - we need human sympathy and love. This suggests to us one way in which we can help others. All about us are continually those who are disheartened, whom we can cheer and strengthen by encouraging words.
No ministry we can choose in this world will mean more to others than a ministry of encouragement.
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