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1. Daily Devotion: May 23, 2024
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May 29
"I have called you friends" (Joh 15:15).
Years ago there was an old German professor whose beautiful
life was a marvel to his students. Some of them resolved to
know the secret of it; so one of their number hid in the study
where the old professor spent his evenings.
It was late when the teacher came in. He was very tired, but he
sat down and spent an hour with his Bible. Then he bowed his
head in secret prayer; and finally closing the Book of books, he
said,
"Well, Lord Jesus, we’re on the same old terms."
To know Him is life’s highest attainment; and at all costs, every
Christian should strive to be "on the same old terms with Him."
The reality of Jesus comes as a result of secret prayer, and a
personal study of the Bible that is devotional and sympathetic.
Christ becomes more real to the one who persists in the
cultivation of His presence.
Speak thou to Him for He heareth,
And spirit with spirit will meet!
Nearer is He than breathing,
Nearer than hands and feet.
-- Maltbie D. Babcock1
May 29
THE SADDEST THING
Mar 13:1-9
The saddest thing is to be untrue to God’s plan for one’s life.
The Jewish Temple was the heart of the Jewish nation. It
enshrined all that the nation stood for. It represented the
national ideal—faithfulness to God and to their God-given world-
1
Streams in the Desert (Mrs. Charles E. Cowman) Published in 1925; public domain.

2. Daily Devotion: May 23, 2024
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mission. They were untrue to God and to their world-mission.
So they were destroyed as a nation (not as a people). But they
are to have another chance. The patience of God!2
May 29
THE FORTRESS OF THE HEART
"Keep thy heart with all diligence." — Pro 4:23.
"The peace of God shall keep your hearts." — Php 4:7.
IN MOST of the old castles there is an inner keep, which is
protected, not only by mighty walls and bastions, but by the
portcullis at the gate, and sentries at every approach, who
challenged every one that passed in and out. So the heart is
continually approached by good and evil, by the frivolities and
vanities of the world and the insidious suggestions of the flesh.
It is like an inn or hostelry, with constant arrivals and
departures. Passengers throng in and out, some of them with
evil intent, hoping to find conspirators, or to light fires that will
spread until the whole being is swept with passion, consuming
in an hour the fabric of years to ashes.
We need, therefore, to be constantly on the watch; we must
keep our heart above all else that we guard, for out of it are the
issues of life (R.V. marg.). Our Lord says that "out of the heart
of man come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, thefts,"
etc. The devil and the world without would be less to be feared,
if there were not such strong tendencies to evil within—many of
them inherited from long lines of ancestors, who, alas! pass
down to us the worst features of their characters equally with
the best.
Keep it Clean. Just as the eye of the body is perpetually washed
with tear-water, so let us ask that the precious blood of Christ
may cleanse away any speck of impurity. Remember how
delicate a thing the heart is, and how susceptible to the dust of
an evil thought, which would instantly prevent it becoming the
2
The Bent-Knee Time (Samuel D. Gordon) Published in 1918; public domain.

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organ of spiritual vision. Sursum Corda! Lift up your hearts! We
lift them up unto the Lord!
The Sentinel of Peace. Then the Peace of God will become the
warden or sentry of the heart, and it passeth understanding! We
can understand the apparent peace of some men. They have
made money, and their gold-bags are piled around them as a
fortress; they have rich and influential friends, within whose
protection they imagine they will be sheltered and defended;
they enjoy good health, and are held in high esteem. We can
understand such peace, though it often proves ephemeral! But
there is a peace that passeth understanding! It is to this that
our Lord refers when He says, "My Peace I give unto you; not as
the world giveth." "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it
be afraid."
PRAYER
Keep me, Heavenly Father, as the apple of Thine eye; defend
me by Thine Almighty power; hide me from this strife of
tongues and the fiery darts of the wicked one. May my heart be
as the palace which the Stronger than the strong man keeps in
perfect peace. AMEN.3
May 29
The Boyhood of Jesus
And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with
wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. Now his' parents
went to Jerusalem every year at the fast of the Passover. And
when he was twelve fears' old, they went up to Jerusalem after
the custom of the feast — Luk 2:40-42
Uneventful Years Need Not Be Unprofitable
One of the holiest doctors of the mediaeval church, who was
placed by Dante among the saints of paradise, said a striking
thing about the youth of Jesus. "Take notice," he said, "that His
doing nothing wonderful was itself a kind of wonder. As there is
3
Our Daily Walk by Frederick Brotherton (F. B.) Meyer. Published in 1893; public domain.

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power in His actions, so is there power in His retirement and His
silence." When we read the false Gospels of the youth of Jesus,
we meet with story after story of miracle. Jesus makes clay
sparrows and they fly away; or He puts out His hand and
touches some plough that Joseph had made badly, and
immediately it takes a perfect shape. But in our Gospels there is
nothing of all that. There is not a whisper of a boyish miracle.
Jesus grew and waxed strong in spirit filled with wisdom, and
the grace of God was upon Him (Luk 2:40). Let us learn then
that uneventful years need never be idle or unprofitable years.
The still river in the secluded valley is gathering waters to bear
a city's commerce. Give me health and a day, said Emerson,
and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous. Give Me, said
Jesus, the quiet vale of Nazareth, and the blue sky and the
blossoming of flowers, and David and Isaiah, and My village
home and God, and I shall be well prepared for My great work.
One Event in Thirty Silent Years
Now out of these thirty silent years one incident alone has been
preserved, it is the story of Jesus in the Temple. We learn that
when Jesus was twelve years old, He went up with Mary and
Joseph to Jerusalem to keep the Passover. And how, when the
feast was over, Mary and Joseph set out again for home, and
how they missed their child and went to search for Him and
found Him in the Temple with the doctors, all that we have
known since our days of Sunday school. Now, why do you think
this story has been preserved? Why should it rise, a solitary
hilltop, out of the mist that hangs along the valley? It is worth a
great deal of pains to discover that.
Influence of the Journey to Jerusalem on Jesus.
First, then, let us try to realize the in influence of this journey
upon Jesus. It is always a very memorable hour when a lad for
the first time leaves his village home. He has dreamed of the
great world many a night, and now he is going to see it for
himself. Hitherto his horizon has been bounded by the range of
hills that encircles his quiet home. Now he is actually going to

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cross the barrier, and touch the mystery that lies beyond. There
is a stirring of the heart in such an hour, a fresh conception of
the greater world; a journey like that will do what a death does
sometimes, it wakens the childish spirit to the mysteries. And
the lad may come home again, and live with his father and
mother, but the world can never more be quite the same. So
when Jesus for the first time left His village, it was an ever-
memorable day. From Nazareth to Jerusalem was some eighty
miles, and almost every mile was rich in memory. Yonder was
Shunem, where the woman's son was raised. There was Gilboa,
where Saul had perished. That curling smoke rose from the
homes of Bethel. These walls and battlements were Jerusalem,
at last. So all that Jesus had ever learned at Nazareth, and all
that He had drunk in from His parents' lips, thrilled Him, and
glowed in His young heart, and by the very glow, expanded it.
And what with the growing crowds that joined their company,
and what with the ever-changing scenery, the nature of the boy
was so enkindled that old things passed away for Him. That is
one reason why God preserved this incident, it was a
momentous hour in the life of Jesus. Luke gives the story as a
kind of picture to illustrate the truth that Jesus grew.
The Character of Jesus Is Revealed
Next note that in this incident the character of Jesus is revealed.
For a boy of twelve reared in a quiet village, Jerusalem at
Passover must have been paradise. A city has always a
fascination for a lad, especially a crowded city on a holiday.
What throngs there were! What pillars and stairs and castles!
And at any corner might they not hear the tramp of a marching
company of Roman soldiers, with glittering helmets and flashing
pikes? Now tell me, did you ever hear of a lad who would leave
the stir and the busy streets and the gallant soldiers, and steal
away into the quiet Temple? Yet that is just what Jesus did, and
it is an exquisite glimpse of His young heart. I dare say He
heard the music of the trumpet and had a boyish pleasure in the
crowd. But here was the Temple He had heard of so often at
Nazareth, and here were the doctors who could answer all His

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questions. Many a time at home He had questioned Mary, and
Mary had said: "Ah, child! I do not understand; it would take
the Temple doctors to answer that." And now the Temple
doctors were beside Him, and Jesus forgot the crowds—forgot
His parents—in His passionate eagerness to ask and know. No
doubt when all the companies turned homeward, not a few
children were missing beside Jesus. No doubt when the first
evening fell, other mothers turned back to seek their boys. And
one would find her child among the soldiers; and another would
find her child in the bazaars. Mary alone found Jesus in the
Temple. is it not a priceless glance into a spirit whose
consuming passion was the things of God?
Jesus' Dawning Sense of His Mission to the World
Lastly, this incident has been preserved because in it we have
Jesus' dawning sense of His mission to the world. The age of
twelve was an important period for a Jewish boy; it was the
time when he ceased to be a child, and in the letter of the law
became a man. It was at twelve, according to the Jews, that
Moses had left the house of Pharaoh's daughter. It was at
twelve that Samuel had been called. It was at twelve that King
Josiah, of the tender heart, had launched forth in reform. But
more important still, it was at twelve that a Jewish boy began to
work; he was then apprenticed, if I may say so, to a trade. So
Mary and Joseph, travelling to Jerusalem, would be much in talk
about their Son's career. They would often kneel on the grass
by the roadside, and cry to the God of Abraham to guide them
in choosing rightly for their beloved Boy. And here was the
answer to their evening prayers—how different from all that
they had dreamed!—"Wist Ye not that I must be about my
Father's business?" How much that meant for Jesus we cannot
tell. How far He had seen into the dark yet glorious future, we
shall know better when we see Him face to face. But at least He
was conscious that He stood apart, and felt, as man had never
felt before, the nearness and the glory of God's Fatherhood, and
knew that henceforward life was to be to Him an absolute
devotion to His Father's will. Then He went back with Mary and

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with Joseph and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them;
but His mother kept all these sayings in her heart.4
May 29
Morning
"Thou hatest wickedness." — Psa 45:7
"Be ye angry, and sin not." There can hardly be goodness in a
man if he be not angry at sin; he who loves truth must hate
every false way. How our Lord Jesus hated it when the
temptation came! Thrice it assailed him in different forms, but
ever he met it with, "Get thee behind me, Satan." He hated it in
others; none the less fervently because he showed his hate
oftener in tears of pity than in words of rebuke; yet what
language could be more stern, more Elijah-like, than the words,
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour
widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer." He
hated wickedness, so much that he bled to wound it to the
heart; he died that it might die; he was buried that he might
bury it in his tomb; and he rose that he might for ever trample
it beneath his feet. Christ is in the Gospel, and that Gospel is
opposed to wickedness in every shape. Wickedness arrays itself
in fair garments, and imitates the language of holiness; but the
precepts of Jesus, like his famous scourge of small cords, chase
it out of the temple, and will not tolerate it in the Church. So,
too, in the heart where Jesus reigns, what war there is between
Christ and Belial! And when our Redeemer shall come to be our
Judge, those thundering words, "Depart, ye cursed" which are,
indeed, but a prolongation of his life-teaching concerning sin,
shall manifest his abhorrence of iniquity. As warm as is his love
to sinners, so hot is his hatred of sin; as perfect as is his
righteousness, so complete shall be the destruction of every
form of wickedness. O thou glorious champion of right, and
destroyer of wrong, for this cause hath God, even thy God,
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
4
Devotional Sermons by George H. Morrison from "The Glasgow Pulpit Series". Published in 1902-1928; public domain.

8. Daily Devotion: May 23, 2024
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Evening
"Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth
this city Jericho." — Jos 6:26
Since he was cursed who rebuilt Jericho, much more the man
who labours to restore Popery among us. In our fathers' days
the gigantic walls of Popery fell by the power of their faith, the
perseverance of their efforts, and the blast of their gospel
trumpets; and now there are some who would rebuild that
accursed system upon its old foundation. O Lord, be pleased to
thwart their unrighteous endeavours, and pull down every stone
which they build. It should be a serious business with us to be
thoroughly purged of every error which may have a tendency to
foster the spirit of Popery, and when we have made a clean
sweep at home we should seek in every way to oppose its all
too rapid spread abroad in the church and in the world. This last
can be done in secret by fervent prayer, and in public by
decided testimony. We must warn with judicious boldness those
who are inclined towards the errors of Rome; we must instruct
the young in gospel truth, and tell them of the black doings of
Popery in the olden times. We must aid in spreading the light
more thoroughly through the land, for priests, like owls, hate
daylight. Are we doing all we can for Jesus and the gospel? If
not, our negligence plays into the hands of the priestcraft. What
are we doing to spread the Bible, which is the Pope's bane and
poison? Are we casting abroad good, sound gospel writings?
Luther once said, "The devil hates goose quills" and, doubtless,
he has good reason, for ready writers, by the Holy Spirit's
blessing, have done his kingdom much damage. If the
thousands who will read this short word this night will do all
they can to hinder the rebuilding of this accursed Jericho, the
Lord's glory shall speed among the sons of men. Reader, what
can you do? What will you do?5
5
Morning and Evening by Charles H. Spurgeon. Published in 1865, 1868; public domain.

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