Text 943, 168 rader
Skriven 2006-03-08 03:38:44 av Bob Hoffman (8:8/2)
Ärende: Our Substance Blessed / Early Rising
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Faith's Checkbook

March 8

Our Substance Blessed

"Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store" (Deuteronomy 28:5).

Obedience brings a blessing on all the provisions which our industry earns for
us. That which comes in and goes out at once, like fruit in the basket which is
for immediate use, shall be blest; and that which is laid by with us for a
longer season shall equally receive a blessing. Perhaps ours is a hand basket
portion. We have a little for breakfast and a scanty bite for dinner in a
basket when we go out to do our work in the morning. This is well, for the
blessing of God is promised to the basket. If we live from hand to mouth,
getting each day's supply in the day, we are as well off as Israel; for when
the LORD entertained His favored people He only gave them a day's manna at a
time. What more did they need? What more do we need?

But if we have a store, how much we need the LORD to bless it! For there is the
care of getting, the care of keeping, the care of managing, the care of using;
and, unless the LORD bless it, these cares will eat into our hearts till our
goods become our gods and our cares prove cankers.

O LORD, bless our substance. Enable us to use it for Thy glory. Help us to keep
worldly things in their proper places, and never may our savings endanger the
saving of our souls.

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MY BROTHER'S KEEPER

Letters from James Alexander (1804-1859) to his younger brother, on the virtues
and vices, the duties and dangers of youth.

Early Rising

My dear brother,
In the course of my reading I am always glad to meet with anything which
strikes me as suitable for your instruction. This morning I opened upon a page
of Mr. Jay's daily devotional books, in which he speaks of early rising, and
his thoughts are so excellent, that I shall make free use of them, and mingle
them with my own.

"The habit of early rising, if ever formed, is commonly established in
childhood or youth. If one has wasted the delightful morning hours of fifteen
years in bed, he will not readily learn to deny himself as an adult. Therefore,
I wish you now to learn to enjoy,

The cool, the fragrant, and the silent morn, To meditation due, and sacred
song."

Perhaps you are ready to ask, "How much sleep is necessary?" This cannot be
answered in a word. Some need more than others. But Mr. Jay says, "It is
questionable whether they require much more. Yes, it may be questioned whether
they require any more, as to length. What they need more of, is better sleep;
and the quality would be improved by lessening the quantity." This remark used
to be often made by the celebrated and excellent Dr. Benjamin Rush. Try the
experiment of shortening your slumbers; you will have fewer dreams, fewer
turnings and tossings but more solid repose, more refreshment.

But you must shorten your rest at the right end; not by sitting up late at
night—but by rising early in the morning. Physicians say that one hour's sleep
before midnight is worth more than two hours after it. However this may be, one
hour of study before breakfast is certainly worth two after supper. The mind is
more fresh and cheerful, and the health is less injured. And then, how much
more delightful are the early hours! The poet says truly,

"Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, With charm of earliest birds."

In the delightful months of spring, summer, and autumn, you should be up at
sunrise. When the morning haze begins to disperse, you will observe all nature
bedewed with sweetness. Fresh odors breathe from the woods, and fields, and
gardens. A thousand birds are singing in the branches. The morning walk among
such scenes is as useful to the health as it is pleasing to the taste.

It is time that you should begin to care for your health, and take measures to
secure strength for future usefulness. The advantage of early rising, as it
regards this, will be apparent in your vigor, your appetite, your nerves, your
spirits, and even your complexion. Ask your physician. Is there a medical man
on earth that would risk his reputation by a contrary opinion? Dr. Sinclair, in
his volumes on health and long life, remarks, that though those who lived to a
very great age differed in many things, they all resembled each other here.
There was not one who did not rise early.

Whatever business you may ever be engaged in, will be furthered by early
rising. What an advantage has a student from this habit in planning and
arranging his pursuits for the day! And in having leisure for any incidental
engagement, without putting everything else into disorder! While another is
disposed to cry out, "A little more sleep, and a little more slumber," and who
begins at ten what he should have begun at six, is thrown into hurry and
confusion; and bustles about trying to remedy his situation. He feels himself a
drudge all day; and at night is weary, without having accomplished his task.
All this is so well known. Among all businessmen, a man's reputation suffers
from the want of this virtue.

The heathen used to say, 'Morning is the friend to the muses.' It surely is a
friend to the graces. If it is the best time for study, it is also the best
time for devotion. When prayer and praise are neglected in the morning, they
are commonly neglected all day; and if you let the world get the start of your
soul in the morning, you will seldom overtake it all day. Morning devotion
sweetens every succeeding hour, pours a balm on the conscience, gives a
pleasant savor to business, locks the door against wicked thoughts, and
furnishes matter for pious reflection. It is better to go from prayer to
business—than from business to prayer. Fellowship with God prepares for
fellowship with our fellow creatures, and for every event, whether pleasing or
painful.

Boerhaave, celebrated physician, rose early in the morning, and through his
life, his practice was to dedicate an hour each morning for private prayer and
meditation. Colonel Gardiner, even when in camp, used to spend two hours of the
early morning in pious exercises. The great Judge Hale, also, rose early for
prayer, and read a portion of God's word, without which, he said, nothing
prospered with him all day. Howard, the philanthropist, was an early riser.
John Wesley usually slept five hours; and for many years, he, and all the first
Methodist preachers, had a public service at five in the morning. President
Dwight of Yale, was in the habit of studying Scripture before day. And there
was in one of our southern States, a laboring man who, by devoting two hours of
every morning to study, before he went to his work, became a learned
theologian.

If you have already acquired the disgraceful habit of lying in bed late, break
it off now, not gradually—but at once. Do not regard the little unpleasant
feelings you may have to endure for a few weeks. Go forth, and inhale the
fragrance of the charming spring and autumnal mornings; it will be a cordial to
your body and your mind. And in the summer, the season from early dawn until
breakfast is the only time you available, when you can enjoy a book, a walk or
ride in the open air.

I have written to you more than once, concerning the example of our adorable
Savior; and I wish the chief object of these letters may be, to set His blessed
example more fully before you. Now, what do you suppose was our Lord's
practice? Just imagine to yourself, the way in which he spent his morning
hours. Can you for an instant suppose that he passed them in slumbers upon his
couch? When the hum of business began among the laborers of Judea or of
Galilee, and the sun shone warmly on the fields and villages—was the Redeemer
asleep? Is it possible for you to think so? No, it is not. On a certain
occasion, we read, "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he
went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed"—and yet he had
been greatly occupied the whole of the day preceding this.

We think little of time—but he never passed an idle hour. The language of the
whole of his life was, "I must work the works of him who sent me, while it is
yet day—the night comes, when no man can work." Yet he was really a man. He
took our infirmities, and wearied nature required repose. But he distinguished
between what was necessary and what was needless. It may be also said of his
whole life, "He pleased not himself."

Your affectionate brother,
James
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