耶稣带着彼得、雅各、约翰暗暗地上了高山……(可九2)

我们都有过山上的经历－－从神的观点看事物，于是就想留在那里不再下来。可是，神绝不容许我们留在那里。属灵生命的考验，是看你下山以后的能力。若只有上山才有能力，那就有点不对劲了。在神的山上，固然好极了，但上山的目的，是叫人以后下来到被魔鬼辖制的人中间，把他们向上推。我们不是为山峰、晨曦、美景而造，那些只是感性的时刻。我们乃是为山谷而造，为那日常平凡的事而造，为要考验我们的能力。属灵的自私总是盼望可以重演山上的经历，以为只要留在山上，就可以说话生活如天使一般。其实，高峰的生活是例外的，在与神的相交中有它的作用；但必须当心，别让属灵的自私把高山的经历视作唯一去追求的东西。

我们常以为凡事都是为教导我们，但其实比教导更好的，就是使凡遭遇的变成我们的个性。山顶的经历不是要教导我们，乃是要塑造我们。“这事有什么用处？”这样问有很大的危险。属灵的事不是这样计算的。山顶上的经历是罕有的，是神为特别的目的而设的。

祈祷◆主啊，我最渴望的，是在你里面生根建造－－以神为中心，专注于神，热心于神和爱神。我的灵魂何等渴望认识你，并且得着平静。

October 1 The Sphere Of Exaltation

“Jesus leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves.” Mark 9:2

We have all had times on the mount, when we have seen things from God's standpoint and have wanted to stay there; but God will never allow us to stay there. The test of our spiritual life is the power to descend; if we have power to rise only, something is wrong. It is a great thing to be on the mount with God, but a man only gets there in order that afterwards he may get down among the devil-possessed and lift them up. We are not built for the mountains and the dawns and aesthetic affinities, those are for moments of inspiration, that is all. We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff we are in, and that is where we have to prove our mettle. Spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mount. We feel we could talk like angels and live like angels, if only we could stay on the mount. The times of exaltation are exceptional, they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware lest our spiritual selfishness wants to make them the only time.

We are apt to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching, it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz., into character. The mount is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a great snare in asking – What is the use of it? In spiritual matters we can never calculate on that line. The moments on the mountain tops are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God's purpose.

你若能作什么，求你怜悯我们，帮助我们。（可九22）

每次高峰经历之后，神会突然把我们带下山去，面对既不美丽，也不诗意，更无兴奋可言的现实。山峰的高度是以山谷中单调的生活来量度的，但正是这山谷的生活，才是荣耀神的生活。我们在山顶上看见神的荣耀，但却永不会在那里为荣耀他而活。在谦卑低微的境地中，才真正显露我们对神的价值，显出我们的忠贞。在英雄的高台上，多半人都可以大显身手，因为我们心中有自私的天性；但神却要我们处身在枯燥平凡的境地，要我们在山谷中，单凭与他的关系而活。彼得以为留在山上最好不过，可是主耶稣却把门徒从山上带下山谷，在那里，山上的异象才得以启露。

“你若能作什么……”在山谷的卑微中，才能把我们多疑的根拔掉。试回想你的经历，在你认识主耶稣是谁以前，你是一个奸狡的不信者。在山上的时候，你什么都相信，可是在山谷中面对现实时又如何呢？你大可以作见证，说成圣之道，可是对那如今令你屈辱的事，你如何处理？上一次你与神在山上，看见天上地下权柄都在耶稣手中；如今在卑下的山谷中，你有没有疑惑？

祈祷◆主啊，昔日我在你面前的生活，仿如四处漂流、黯淡无光，直至你在我里面出现。因着我相信你大能的救赎，我称颂你，可是，噢，能察觉你的感动竟然会带来如此的分别！

October 2 The Sphere Of Humiliation

“If Thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.” Mark 9:22

After every time of exaltation we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountain top is measured by the drab drudgery of the valley; but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mount, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the sphere of humiliation that we find our true worth to God, that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at the heroic pitch because of the natural selfishness of our hearts, but God wants us at the drab commonplace pitch, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship to Him. Peter thought it would be a fine thing for them to remain on the mount, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mount into the valley, the place where the meaning of the vision is explained.

“If Thou canst do any thing . . .” It takes the valley of humiliation to root the scepticism out of us. Look back at your own experience, and you will find that until you learned Who Jesus was, you were a cunning sceptic about His power. When you were on the mount, you could believe anything, but what about the time when you were up against facts in the valley? You may be able to give a testimony to sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you just now? The last time you were on the mount with God, you saw that all power in heaven and in earth belonged to Jesus – will you be sceptical now in the valley of humiliation?

非用祷告禁食，这一类的鬼总不能出来。（可九29）

“我们为什么不能赶他出去呢？”这问题的答案在于人与主耶稣的关系。只有集中在主身上，加倍的仰望主，才能把这类鬼赶出去。若不集中靠神的能力去作神的工，只靠自己的主意，就变得无能，像昔日门徒一样。我们热心为他作工，却又不认识他，只会给神带来羞辱。

当你面临一件困难的事，外表看来好像没有什么改变，可是你却晓得事情必得以解决，因为你专注在主耶稣身上。这就是你事奉的途径－－与主之间毫无阻隔。若有任何阻隔的话，就必须挪开，不是因恼怒而置之不理，也不是越过它，而是面对它，把它直接带到主耶稣面前。那样，这件事和所有与此相关的，都会荣耀神；你甚至诧异莫名，直到面对面见主那一天才会完全明白。

我们要像鹰一般展翅上腾，但必须知道如何降落。圣徒的能力，就是能降落，能在平地上生活。保罗说：“我靠着那加给我力量的，凡事都能作。”他所指的事，多半是低贱的事，我们大可拒绝降卑，说：“谢了，我还是喜欢与神在山顶上。”主耶稣是真实的，我能否在这亮光中面对现实？还是让事情完全抹煞了我对他的信心，以致陷在恐慌中？

祈祷◆主啊，将我高举至你那里，以致你救恩那丰富和充满光辉的喜乐，能为着你的荣耀而面临我和照亮我。愿你使我与你之间的祈祷保持畅通。

October 3 The Sphere Of Ministration

“This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” Mark 9:29

“Why could not we cast him out?” The answer lies in a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. This kind can come forth by nothing but by concentration and redoubled concentration on Him. We can ever remain powerless, as were the disciples, by trying to do God's work not in concentration on His power, but by ideas drawn from our own temperament. We slander God by our very eagerness to work for Him without knowing Him.

You are brought face to face with a difficult case and nothing happens externally, and yet you know that emancipation will be given because you are concentrated on Jesus Christ. This is your line of service – to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it in irritation, or by mounting up, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ, then that very thing, and all you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way you will never know till you see Him face to face.

We must be able to mount up with wings as eagles; but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and the living down. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” said Paul, and the things he referred to were mostly humiliating things. It is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say – “No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountain top with God.” Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they are efface altogether my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?

蒙召作圣徒。（林前一2）

为你所看见而未达成的一切感谢神。你见到异象，但其实你一点也未达那境地。我们往往在山谷中退后回头，但山谷却正是我们是否被选上的考验。我们未能接受打击，就是要实现异象必须有的打击。我们看见自己的缺欠，也看见神心目中要我们达到的，但我们到底愿不愿意有被神击打、塑造、使用的异象？神的熬炼，总是从平凡的方法，透过平凡的人而来的。

有时我们不晓得神的用意是什么；但到底我们的异象能否变作我们的个性，全在乎我们，不在乎神。若我们留恋山顶，活在异象的回忆中，那么在现实平凡的人生中，我们实一无用处。我们必须学习倚靠异象所见的去活，不是靠当时那种极乐，也不是靠刻意的默想神。要在异象的真光中活，直至把异象完全实现。所有训练都是朝这个方向走，要学习感谢神让我们知道他的要求。

在神说“做”的时候，那小小的“我”总是怏怏不乐。要把“我”在神的义怒下萎缩，神说：“我是自有永有的，我差遣你。”他必须作主。若知道神透察我们生活的每一洞口，那是何等的启迪哩！他像电光般把我们搜出来，没有谁像神那样认识人。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着昨天我能迅速认知你在我里面，我感谢你；求你帮助我今天在稳定和持续的祷告中，与你心意联合。

October 4 The Vision And The Verity

“Called to be saints.” 1 Corinthians 1:2

Thank God for the sight of all you have never yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not there yet by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the blows which must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to have the vision “batter'd to shape and use” by God? The batterings always come in commonplace ways and through commonplace people.

There are times when we do know what God's purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends upon us, not upon God. If we prefer to loll on the mount and live in the memory of the vision, we will be of no use actually in the ordinary stuff of which human life is made up. We have to learn to live in reliance on what we saw in the vision, not in ecstasies and conscious contemplation of God, but to live in actualities in the light of the vision until we get to the veritable reality. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making known His demands.

The little “I am” always sulks when God says do. Let the little “I am” be shrivelled up in God's indignation – “I AM THAT I AM hath sent thee.” He must dominate. Is it not penetrating to realize that God knows where we live, and the kennels we crawl into! He will hunt us up like a lightning flash. No human being knows human beings as God does.

这就如罪是从一人入了世界，死又是从罪来的，于是死就临到众人，因为众人都犯了罪。（罗五12）

圣经不是说神因一人的罪，就刑罚所有的人；圣经乃是说人的罪性－－我对自我主权的把持，是由一人进入人类。然而另一个人担负了人类的罪，把罪除掉（来九26），这是何其奥秘的启示哩。罪性并非指错失或道德的败落，而是自我实现的倾向－－我是自己的神。这倾向可以表现得很道德，也可以很不道德，但只有一个根基，就是对自我主权的把持。主耶稣不论碰到罪大恶极的人，还是正人君子，他均不理会前者道德的败落或后者道德的操守；他所注意的，是我们所看不见的－－人的意向。

罪是与生俱来的，是人无能为力的，但神藉着救赎对付了罪。神藉主耶稣的十字架拯救整个人类，使我们可以脱离那因罪而来的咒诅。神从不因人有遗传的罪根而定人的罪。定罪不是由于我生来承袭了罪，乃是因知道主耶稣来救赎我，而我仍拒绝他，那是我就要被定罪了。“光来到世间，世人……不爱光倒爱黑暗，定他们的罪就是在此。”

祈祷◆主啊，愿你今天将圣灵的直觉力和先天的灵感赐给我，让我可以在一切事情上识别你。愿你恩慈的同在和平安，充满这一天。

October 5 The Bias Of Degeneration

“Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Romans 5:12

The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man's sin; but that the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race by one man, and that another Man took on Him the sin of the human race and put it away (Heb. 9:26) – an infinitely profounder revelation. The disposition of sin is not immorality and wrong-doing, but the disposition of self-realization – I am my own god. This disposition may work out in decorous morality or in indecorous immorality, but it has the one basis, my claim to my right to myself. When Our Lord faced men with all the forces of evil in them, and men who were clean living and moral and up right, He did not pay any attention to the moral degradation of the one or to the moral attainment of the other; He looked at something we do not see, viz., the disposition.

Sin is a thing I am born with and I cannot touch it; God touches sin in Redemption. In the Cross of Jesus Christ God redeemed the whole human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a man responsible for having the heredity of sin. The condemnation is not that I am born with a heredity of sin, but if when I realize Jesus Christ came to deliver me from it, I refuse to let Him do so, from that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “And this is the judgment” (the critical moment), “that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light.”

神……乐意将他儿子启示在我心里。（加一15-16）

主耶稣若要把我重生过来，要面对什么困难呢？我承袭的罪性，是我无能为力的；我并不圣洁，自己也不可能圣洁。若主耶稣所能作的，只是告诉我要圣洁，他的教训只会带来绝望；但主耶稣若是生命的再造者，能把自己圣洁的遗传放进人里面，我便可以明白要圣洁是什么意思。救赎就是主耶稣把自己的性情传袭到任何人身上，而他所设的标准，就是根据他的教训，为放进去的生命而设的。我在道德方面能作的，就是承认神在十字架上对罪的判定。

新约对重生的教训，就是当人深深感到属灵的需要，神就把圣灵放进他的灵里去，他的灵就被神儿子的灵所感动－－“真等到基督成形在你们心里”。救赎的道德神迹，就是神把一个新性情放在我里面，以致我能活出全新的生命来。当我来到自己欠缺的极限，知道自己的有限时，耶稣说：“你有福了。”但要到达那境地，除非我先意识到自己的需要，否则，神不能把耶稣基督的性情放在我里面。正如罪性是因一人进入人类，同样，圣洁也藉另一个人进入。救赎就是透过主耶稣，把我从罪的传袭中救出来，领受一个无玷污的遗传，就是圣灵。

祈祷◆主啊，我的灵性－－或更准确地说，是我的思想领域－－仍是何等愚钝和模糊，以致琐碎的事情占据了庞大的范围，却将生命中那些重要的问题挤掉。求你拯救的大能释放我。

October 6 The Bent Of Regeneration

“When it pleased God . . to reveal His Son in me.” Galatians 1:15, 16

If Jesus Christ is to regenerate me, what is the problem He is up against? I have a heredity I had no say in; I am not holy, nor likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is to tell me I must be holy, His teaching plants despair. But if Jesus Christ is a Regenerator, One Who can put into me His own heredity of holiness, then I begin to see what He is driving at when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into any man the hereditary disposition that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives are based on that disposition: His teaching is for the life He puts in. The moral transaction on my part is agreement with God’s verdict on sin in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a man is struck by a sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God, “until Christ be formed in you.” The moral miracle of Redemption is that God can put into me a new disposition whereby I can live a totally new life. When I reach the frontier of need and know my limitations, Jesus says – “Blessed are you.” But I have to get there. God cannot put into me, a responsible moral being, the disposition that was in Jesus Christ unless I am conscious I need it.

Just as the disposition of sin entered into the human race by one man, so the Holy Spirit entered the human race by another Man; and Redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin and through Jesus Christ can receive an unsullied heredity, viz., the Holy Spirit.

神使那无罪的，替我们成为罪，好叫我们在他里面成为神的义。（林后五21）

罪是一种根本的关系；不是指所犯的错事，而是错的本体，就是故意极力脱离神独立。基督教信仰是把一切建基在正视罪的本质。其他宗教对付许多罪行，圣经只对付一样罪。主耶稣首先面对的，就是罪的遗传。我们传福音若忽略这一点，就使福音失却了叫人扎心及爆炸性的信息。

圣经的启示不是耶稣怎样担负我们肉体上的罪，而是他担负了没有人可以触及的罪根。神叫自己的儿子成为罪，为叫罪人可以成为圣洁。在整部圣经中，我们看见主担当世人的罪，担在自己肩头上，亲自承担一切。“神使那无罪的，替我们成为罪。”正因他这样做，就为全人类建立了救赎的根基。主耶稣恢复了人类原来的地位，把他们放在神本来计划的地位上。任何人都可以因主耶稣在十字架上成就的，与神连合。

人无法自救，救赎是出于神，并且已经完全成就。救赎与人的关系，在于人的反应。我们必须把救赎的启示，与个人生命中得救的经历清楚区别。

祈祷◆主啊，为着你今早赐给我的感动，我感谢你－－可是，我却是那么令人惊愕地毫无生气和毫不美丽！不过，这个对自己的认识，只表明当你不在我里面时我的生命境况。

October 7 Reconciliation

“For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

Sin is a fundamental relationship; it is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independence of God. The Christian religion bases everything on the positive, radical nature of sin. Other religions deal with sins; the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ faced in men was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the Gospel that the message of the Gospel has lost its sting and its blasting power.

The revelation of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took upon Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took upon Himself the heredity of sin which no man can touch. God made His own Son to be sin that He might make the sinner a saint. All through the Bible it is revealed that Our Lord bore the sin of the world by identification, not by sympathy. He deliberately took upon His own shoulders, and bore in His own Person, the whole massed sin of the human race – “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin,” and by so doing He put the whole human race on the basis of Redemption. Jesus Christ rehabilitated the human race; He put it back to where God designed it to be, and anyone can enter into union with God on the ground of what Our Lord has done on the Cross.

A man cannot redeem himself; Redemption is God's “bit,” it is absolutely finished and complete; its reference to individual men is a question of their individual action. A distinction must always be made between the revelation of Redemption and the conscious experience of salvation in a man's life.

到我这里来。（太十一28）

要我到耶稣那里去，岂非卑躬屈膝？试想想有什么事令我们不想到耶稣那里去。若想知道自己的真面目，可以用“到我这里来”这句话考一考自己。你若有任何不真诚，都会千方百计争辩，不肯到主那里去；你会逃避，不肯去；你宁可吃苦也不去；你宁可作任何事，也不愿走这最后一程自认完全无知的路－－“依我本相到主跟前”。只要你仍有一丁点儿属灵的自负，总会期望神叫你做大事，而他只叫你到他那里去。

“到我这里来。”听见这句话时，便知道你未去他那里以前，某些事情必然发生。圣灵会指示你所当作的，叫你从根本的问题上下斧，除掉那阻路的东西。你不去解决，就无法再前进。圣灵会指出死结所在，但他不能强行解开，他要你自己甘愿去解开。

多少时候，你来到神面前祈求，觉得这一次总可以成就了，可是每次都空手而回。其实神一直张开手等待你，要得着你，也要你得着他。想想主耶稣那无法淹没、无可抗拒、不厌其烦的忍耐－－“到我这里来”。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，诗人的话对我何其真实－－“我的性命几乎归于尘土。”我的灵魂铺满了尘土，主啊，求你按照你的话语激发我。言语藉着你的灵而得着生机，它所带来的生命将是何等完美！主啊，愿你现在便发声。

October 8 The Exclusiveness Of Christ

“Come unto Me.” Matthew 11:28

Is it not humiliating to be told that we must come to Jesus! Think of the things we will not come to Jesus Christ about. If you want to know how real you are, test yourself by these words – “Come unto Me.” In every degree in which you are not real, you will dispute rather than come, you will quibble rather than come, you will go through sorrow rather than come, you will do anything rather than come the last lap of unutterable foolishness – “Just as I am.” As long as you have the tiniest bit of spiritual impertinence, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do a big thing, and all He is telling you to do is to “come.”

“Come unto Me.” When you hear those words you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, anything at all that will put the axe at the root of the thing which is preventing you from getting through. You will never get further until you are willing to do that one thing. The Holy Spirit will locate the one impregnable thing in you, but He cannot budge it unless you are willing to let Him.

How often have you come to God with your requests and gone away with the feeling – Oh, well, I have done it this time! And yet you go away with nothing, whilst all the time God has stood with outstretched hands not only to take you, but for you to take Him. Think of the invincible, unconquerable, unwearying patience of Jesus – “Come unto Me.”

将肢体献给义作奴仆，以至于成圣。（罗六19）

我不能救自己，叫自己成圣，也不能赎罪；我不能救赎世界，把歪的弄直，把不纯的变为纯净，把不洁的变为圣洁。这完全是神至高无上的作为。我对主耶稣成就的一切，有没有信心呢？他成就完全的救恩，我有没有时刻谨记？最重要的不是作什么，而是相信。基督的救赎不是一个经验，乃是神透过基督成就的大作为，我要把信心建基其上。若我的信心寄托在自己的经历上，就产生最不合圣经的模式－－一个孤立的生命，因为我只注视自身的洁白。要提防那种不以主的救赎为根基的敬虔，这生命毫无用处，只是避世的退隐，对神无用处，对人也无裨益。要以主耶稣来衡量每一种经历。除非我们把所有事物建基在主的救赎上，否则一切所作的都不能讨神喜悦。

主耶稣的救赎必须在我的生活上产生实际自然的功效。每次我顺服，神就在我这一方，他的恩典与我天性的顺服就契合为一了。顺服就是把一切都投在主的救赎上，于是就立即得着神恩典的悦纳。

提防那些否定天然人性的敬虔自守，因这只是个假壳。要经常去到救赎的案前，问自己：在这件或那件事上，(在我身上的)救赎大工有被显明出来吗？

祈祷◆主啊，我来到你的面前，求你自己像一团火那样四面护卫我，而你的荣耀就在其中。这个祈求听起来全属自私，可是，我却不懂得用别的方法来表达。噢，主啊，你是最清楚知道的。

October 9 Pull Yourself Together

“Yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.” Romans 6:13-22

I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot atone for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I can not make right what is wrong, pure what is impure, holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Have I faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made a perfect Atonement, am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The great need is not to do things, but to believe things. The Redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith upon it. If I construct my faith on my experience, I produce that most unscriptural type, an isolated life, my eyes fixed on my own whiteness. Beware of the piety that has no pre-supposition in the Atonement of the Lord. It is of no use for anything but a sequestered life; it is useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every type of experience by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the pre-supposition of the Atonement.

The Atonement of Jesus has to work out in practical, unobtrusive ways in my life. Every time I obey, absolute Deity is on my side, so that the grace of God and natural obedience coincide. Obedience means that I have banked everything on the Atonement, and my obedience is met immediately by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.

Beware of the piety that denies the natural life, it is a fraud. Continually bring yourself to the bar of the Atonement – where is the discernment of the Atonement in this thing, and in that?

父啊，天地的主，我感谢你！因为你将这些事向聪明通达人就藏起来，向婴孩就显出来。（太十一25）

在属灵的关系上，没有渐长这回事；有就有，没有就是没有。神并不是愈来愈洗清我们的罪，而是我们若行在光中，一切罪就除掉了。问题是顺服与否，若顺服，那关系就随即完全了。只要一秒钟不顺服，黑暗与死亡就随即作工。

神所有的启示全都是隐密的，不能靠哲学或思想开启；只有靠顺服，才向我们开启。一顺服，亮光就来。不是牵肠挂肚地要进入真理，乃是要浸在真理中，好叫他能在你里面作工。要认识真理，就只有靠重生，而不是靠追寻。顺服神告诉你的事，下一步他就会向你显明。关于圣灵的工作，我们可以读万卷书，但只要有五分钟的完全顺服，事情就明朗如目光。“我想总有一天会明白的。”其实你如今就可以明白，不是靠研究，乃是靠顺服。一点点的顺服，就能打开天门，神深奥的真理就立即属于你了。你若尚未顺服神向你启示的真理，他不会再向你显示更多真理。要当心变得“聪明通达”。“人若立志遵着他的旨意行，就必晓得...”(约7:17)

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿我从肉体和心灵的各种污秽中自洁；除去属灵生命中所有的粗糙品质，以致我可以在满足的喜乐中，在你里面居住。

October 10 Whereby Shall I Know?

“I thank Thee, 0 Father . . . because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” Matthew 11:25

In spiritual relationship we do not grow step by step; we are either there or we are not. God does not cleanse us more and more from sin, but when we are in the light, walking in the light, we are cleansed from all sin. It is a question of obedience, and instantly the relationship is perfected. Turn away for one second out of obedience, and darkness and death are at work at once.

All God's revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God's truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. Obey God in the thing He shows you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. One reads tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when one five minutes of drastic obedience would make things as clear as a sunbeam. “I suppose I shall understand these things some day!” You can understand them now. It is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience, and heaven opens and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming “wise and prudent.”

听见拉撒路病了，就在所居之地，仍住了两天。（约十一6）

神有没有因为信任你，对你默不作声－－一个满有意义的沉默？神的沉默就是他的回答。试想在伯大尼那几天的死寂！在你生命中，有类似的日子吗？神能否这样信任你？还是你仍不断求取眼见的答复？要是你得不着那祝福就不肯前行，神也会赐下；但他若沉默，是表示要使你对他有更深切的认识。你是否因为神未明明地回答你而忧愁？你会发现神最亲密待你，就是完全的沉默，不是绝望的死寂，而是愉快对你，因为他看到你可以承受一个更大的启示。如果神对你沉默，要赞美他，他正带你进入他伟大的计划中。神何时彰显他的答复，在乎他的主权。时间对神不是什么一回事。你曾说：“我求饼，他却给石头。”其实他没有这样作，今日你要发现神赐给你的是生命的饼。

神的沉默有一奇妙之处，就是把他的安静传给你，使你变得完全的坚信－－“我知道神听了我。”他的沉默表示他听见了。若你一意要神答允赐福你的祷告，他是会成就的；可是他不会赐你沉默的恩典。若耶稣基督引导你明白祷告是为荣耀父神，那么，他就会给你一个先兆，表示他与你的亲密关系－－沉默。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿这刻你以同在的光辉和你靠近的感觉来施福予我。虽然我惟独信靠你，但仍渴求自觉地以你的同在为乐，愿你将它赐给我。

October 11 After God's Silence – What?

“When He had heard therefore that he was sick, He abode two days in the same place where he was.” John 11:6

Has God trusted you with a silence – a silence that is big with meaning? God's silences are His answers. Think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything analogous to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking for a visible answer? God will give you the blessings you ask if you will not go any further without them; but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into a marvellous understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? You will find that God has trusted you in the most intimate way possible, with an absolute silence, not of despair, but of pleasure, because He saw that you could stand a bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, praise Him, He is bringing you into the great run of His purposes. The manifestation of the answer in time is a matter of God's sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you said – “I asked God to give me bread, and He gave me a stone.” He did not, and to-day you find He gave you the bread of life.

A wonderful thing about God's silence is that the contagion of His stillness gets into you and you become perfectly confident – “I know God has heard me.” His silence is the proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will bless you in answer to prayer, He will do it, but He will never give you the grace of silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, He will give you the first sign of His intimacy – silence.

以诺与神同行。（创五24）

一个人属灵生命与个性的考验，不是在特殊情况下的表现，乃在平凡无奇的时日中所行所作。人的价值视乎他在隐藏时对普通事物所抱的态度（比较约一36）。要达致与神同步的境地，是一件痛苦的事，那是属灵上“第二阵风”的经历。学习与神同行，总有跟不上他步伐的困难；但一旦跟上了，所表现的唯一特质，就是神的生命。个人的生命在与神结合中隐藏了，所表现的只有神的步伐与能力。

与神步伐一致是不容易的，因为一开始与神同行，就会发现我们才走了三步，他已在老远了。他有他作事的方法，我们必须学习并接受操练，才能以他的方法作事。耶稣“不灰心，也不丧胆”，因为他从不以他个人的观点去行事，乃是以他父的观点，我们也要如此。属灵真理是在熏陶下学习的，而不是靠头脑的推理。神的灵改变我们看事物的态度，于是从来不可能的事，也变得可能了。与神同行，就是与神联合。要做到这个，需时甚久，但要持之以恒。不要因现在的痛苦而放弃，不久，你会得着新的异象与目标。

祈祷◆主啊，如此众多的活动，如此众多的事情，如此众多的人！愿你因你的荣耀，以宽大的心胸和美善的属性来赐福今天。

October 12 Getting Into God's Stride

“Enoch walked with God.” Genesis 5:24

The test of a man's religious life and character is not what he does in the exceptional moments of life, but what he does in the ordinary times, when there is nothing tremendous or exciting on. The worth of a man is revealed in his attitude to ordinary things when he is not before the footlights (cf. John 1:36). It is a painful business to get through into the stride of God, it means getting your second wind spiritually. In learning to walk with God there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride; but when we have got into it, the only characteristic that manifests itself is the life of God. The individual man is lost sight of in his personal union with God, and the stride and the power of God alone are manifested.

It is difficult to get into stride with God, because when we start walking with Him we find He has outstripped us before we have taken three steps. He has different ways of doing things, and we have to be trained and disciplined into His ways. It was said of Jesus – “He shall not fail nor be discouraged,” because He never worked from His own individual standpoint but always from the standpoint of His Father, and we have to learn to do the same. Spiritual truth is learned by atmosphere, not by intellectual reasoning. God's Spirit alters the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and things begin to be possible which never were possible before. Getting into the stride of God means nothing less than union with Himself. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don't give in because the pain is bad just now, get on with it, and before long you will find you have a new vision and a new purpose.

他出去到他弟兄那里，看他们的重担。（出二11）

摩西看见自己的同胞受欺压，深觉自己是他们的救星；于是按自己的义愤，伸手为他们伸冤。他为神的正义出手，神却容许人把他赶逐到绝境里去，要他在旷野牧羊四十年。时候满足，神显现告诉他去领百姓出来；摩西那时说：“我是什么人，竟能去？”摩西起初就知道自己是拯救百姓的那一位，但却先要经过神的训练。他的观点是没有错的，但在没有学会与神联合以前，他仍是未合用的工人。

我们看见神的异象，又清楚神的心意，于是着手去做；然后，是类似那四十年旷野的经历，似乎神完全不理这回事了。正当我们完全绝望，神的呼召又重新临到，我们就颤抖地说：“我是谁？”我们必须学习跨出第一大步－－“那自有永有的差遣你！”我们必须认识到凭个人的血气为神工作，是狂妄的表现；我们个人的特质，必须与神相交才能炽热起来（太三11）。我们往往着重个人对事物的看法，有异象就说：“这就是神要我做的。”但我们的步伐还未与神一致。若你正陷入失望的阶段，等着吧，辽远的拓展就在前头。

祈祷◆主啊，为着昨晚的睡眠，我感谢你；为着你既不打盹，也不睡眠，不论日夜都保护我们，我称颂你。

October 13 Individual Discouragement And Personal Enlargement

“Moses went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens.” Exodus 2:11

Moses saw the oppression of his people and felt certain that he was the one to deliver them, and in the righteous indignation of his own spirit he started to right their wrongs. After the first strike for God and for the right, God allowed Moses to be driven into blank discouragement, He sent him into the desert to feed sheep for forty years. At the end of that time, God appeared and told Moses to go and bring forth His people, and Moses said – “Who am I, that I should go?” In the beginning Moses realized that he was the man to deliver the people, but he had to be trained and disciplined by God first. He was right in the individual aspect, but he was not the man for the work until he had learned communion with God.

We may have the vision of God and a very clear understanding of what God wants, and we start to do the thing, then comes something equivalent to the forty years in the wilderness, as if God had ignored the whole thing, and when we are thoroughly discouraged God comes back and revives the call, and we get the quaver in and say – “Oh, who am I?” We have to learn the first great stride of God – “I AM THAT I AM hath sent thee.” We have to learn that our individual effort for God is an impertinence; our individuality is to be rendered incandescent by a personal relationship to God (see Matthew 3:17). We fix on the individual aspect of things; we have the vision – “This is what God wants me to do;” but we have not got into God's stride. If you are going through a time of discouragement, there is a big personal enlargement ahead.

耶稣进前来，对他们说：“天上地下所有的权柄都赐给我了。所以你们要去使万民作我的门徒，……。”（马太福音28：18-19）

差传的基础是主耶稣的主权，而不是外邦人的需要。我们很容易视主耶稣为我们事奉神的助手，而主其实是门徒绝对、至高无上的主人。祂不是说，我们若不去，外邦人就失丧了。祂只是说：“所以你们要去，使万民作我的门徒。 ”依从我至高的权柄，去吧；因着在我里面活生生的经历，去教导并传扬。

“十一个门徒往加利利去，到了耶稣约定的山上。（马太福音28:16）”我若要认识基督普世的主权，就必须亲自认识祂，知道怎样独自与祂相处。我必须用时间去敬拜我所佩戴的名，就是基督。“到我这里来。（马太福音11：28）”——那就是见主耶稣的地方。你劳苦担重担吗？多少传道人正是如此。主宣告祂对整个世界的主权，我们却看为次要，但这是主对门徒亲口说的话。

“所以你们要去…… ”“去”的意思是“活出来”。使徒行传1：8“但圣灵降临在你们身上，你们就必得着能力，并要在耶路撒冷，犹太全地，和撒玛利亚，直到地极，作我的见证。”是描写怎样去。耶稣没有说去耶路撒冷、犹太、撒马利亚；但祂说：“作我的见证。”至于“去”的地方，祂会负责安排。

“你们若常在我里面，我的话也常在你们里面，……（约翰福音15:7）”这是保持我们个人生命活泼的途径。神放我们在什么地方都无关重要，因为祂自会安排。

“我却不以性命为念，也不看为宝贵，只要行完我的路程，成就我从主耶稣所领受的职事，证明　神恩惠的福音。(使徒行传20：24)”这就是我们工作的态度，直到死那一天。

October 14 The Key To The Missionary

“All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” Matthew 28:18-20

The basis of missionary appeals is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the heathen. We are apt to look upon Our Lord as One Who assists us in our enterprises for God. Our Lord puts Himself as the absolute sovereign supreme Lord over His disciples. He does not say the heathen will be lost if we do not go; He simply says – “Go ye therefore and teach all nations.” Go on the revelation of My sovereignty; teach and preach out of a living experience of Me.

“Then the eleven disciples went . . unto a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.” v. 16. If I want to know the universal sovereignty of Christ, I must know Him for myself, and how to get alone with Him; I must take time to worship the Being Whose Name I bear. “Come unto Me” – that is the place to meet Jesus. Are you weary and heavy laden? How many missionaries are! We banish those marvellous words of the universal Sovereign of the world to the threshold of an after-meeting; they are the words of Jesus to His disciples.

“Go ye therefore. . . .” Go simply means live. Acts 1:8 is the description of how to go. Jesus did not say – Go into Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, but, “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me” in all these places. He undertakes to establish the goings.

“If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you. . . ” – that is the way to keep going in our personal lives. Where we are placed is a matter of indifference; God engineers the goings.

“None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself . . .” That is how to keep going till we're gone.

祂为我们的罪作了挽回祭，不是单为我们的罪，也是为普天下人的罪。（约翰一书2：2）

宣道信息的中心，就是耶稣基督作了挽回祭。试拿基督任何其他方面的工作看——医治、拯救、成圣；这些都不是无限的。“神的羔羊，除去世人罪孽的。（约翰福音1：29）”才是无限的。宣道的信息就是耶稣基督为普天下人的罪作了挽回祭，宣道士也就是被这一个启示充满的。

宣道信心的中心，不是耶稣基督的仁慈和良善，也不是祂彰显了父神；而是基督把我们从罪中释放，那是最无限的重点，就是祂为我们的罪作了挽回祭。宣道信息不是爱国主义，不是单为某国或某人，乃是为整个世界的。圣灵进到我里面，并不投我的喜好，祂来是要带我与主耶稣联合。

宣道士是与他的主联合，他传扬的不是自己的观点，而是神的羔羊。要归属于一个宣传“主为我们作过什么”的集团、要成为一个热衷于神迹治病或成圣或灵洗的份子较容易。可是，保罗并不是说：“我若不传主为我所作的，我就有祸了。”他乃是说：“若不传福音，我便有祸了。（哥林多前书9：16）”，“神的羔羊，除去世人罪孽的。（约翰福音1：29）”这就是福音。

October 15 The Key To The Missionary Message

“And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:2

The key to the missionary message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus. Take any phase of Christ's work – the healing phase, the saving and sanctifying phase; there is nothing limitless about those. “The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world! ” – that is limitless. The missionary message is the limitless significance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is one who is soaked in that revelation.

The key to the missionary message is the remissionary aspect of Christ's life, not His kindness and His goodness, and His revealing of the Fatherhood of God; the great limitless significance is that He is the propitiation for our sins. The missionary message is not patriotic, it is irrespective of nations and of individuals, it is for the whole world. When the Holy Ghost comes in He does not consider my predilections, He brings me into union with the Lord Jesus.

A missionary is one who is wedded to the charter of his Lord and Master, he has not to proclaim his own point of view, but to proclaim the Lamb of God. It is easier to belong to a coterie which tells what Jesus Christ has done for me, easier to become a devotee to Divine healing, or to a special type of sanctification, or to the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Paul did not say – “Woe is unto me, if I do not preach what Christ has done for me,” but – “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel.” This is the Gospel – “The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!”

所以，你们当求庄稼的主打发工人出去收他的庄稼。（马太福音9：38）

宣道的钥匙在神手中，这钥匙是祷告，不是工作，更不是今天一般人以为的“工作”，因为这些可能叫人逃避，不以神为中心。宣道的钥匙不是一般常理、医疗、文化、教育，甚至不是布道工作。钥匙乃是祷告。“你们当求庄稼的主”依人来看，祷告是不切实际的，是无稽的；从常理角度来看，祷告是愚蠢的。

在主耶稣眼中，没有国族，只有全世界。我们有多少人祷告时，没有理会人，只专注于耶稣基督？因苦知罪而生的庄稼属于祂，这庄稼正是我们要求工人去收割的。四周熟透的庄稼等着收割，我们却只顾从事许多忙碌的活动，一个也不收割，在虚耗精力的事工上浪费了主的时间。假如危难临到你父亲或兄弟，你会不会为主耶稣作收庄稼的人？“啊，我另有特别的事工要做！”没有一个信徒有特别的事工要作，信徒被召归于主，他不能高于主人，也不能指挥主人，自作主张。主并没有召我们做什么特别的工作，祂只召我们归祂。“求庄稼的主”这样，祂预备环境，打发你出去。

October 16 The Key To The Master's Orders

“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:38

The key to the missionary problem is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer not work, that is, not work as the word is popularly understood to-day because that may mean the evasion of concentration on God. The key to the missionary problem is not the key of common sense, nor the medical key, nor the key of civilization or education or even evangelization. The key is prayer. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest.” Naturally, prayer is not practical, it is absurd; we have to realize that prayer is stupid from the ordinary common-sense point of view.

There are no nations in Jesus Christ's outlook, but the world. How many of us pray with out respect of persons, and with respect to only one Person, Jesus Christ? He owns the harvest that is produced by distress and conviction of sin, and this is the harvest we have to pray that labourers may be thrust out to reap. We are taken up with active work while people all round are ripe to harvest, and we do not reap one of them, but waste our Lord's time in over-energized activities. Suppose the crisis comes in your father's life, in your brother’s life, are you there as a labourer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? “Oh, but I have a special work to do!” No Christian has a special work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ's own, one who is not above his Master, one who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls to no special work: He calls to Himself. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,” and He will engineer circumstances and thrust you out.

我实实在在地告诉你们，我所作的事，信我的人也要作；并且要作比这更大的事，因为我往父那里去。（约翰福音14：12）

祷告不是装备我们去做更大的事；祷告本身就是最大的事。我们往往视祷告为超然能力的操练，好预备我们做神的工。但按主的教训，祷告是救赎的神迹在我身上运行，以致神的大能可把这神迹成就在别人身上。果子若要存留，必须藉祷告，但得记着祷告是建基在救赎的苦痛上，而不是自我的痛苦。惟有小孩子的祷告才蒙应允，明哲人反得不着。

不管你在什么地方，祷告就是那要打的仗。不管神安排怎么样的环境，你的责任就是祷告。切勿这样想：“我在这岗位上一无用处。”因为你不守住岗位，那才真是一无用处。神不论加给你怎样的际遇，总要祷告，每时每刻向祂倾吐。“你们若奉我的名求什么，我必成就。”（约翰福音14:14）我们激奋时才肯祷告，这其实是最严重的属灵自私。我们要依着神的方向去做工，而祂说“要祷告”，“所以你们当求庄稼的主，打发工人出去收他的庄稼。”（马太福音9:38）

劳苦的工作，没有刺激兴奋可言；但惟有藉劳苦做工的人，理想才得以实现。同样，做工的信徒能使主的心意实现。你在祷告中劳苦，从神的角度看来，果效是不住实现的。将来当帕子揭开，知道不少灵魂因着你不住的顺服而得救，那是何等的惊喜。

October 17 Greater Works

“And greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father.” John 14:12

Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work. We think of prayer as a common-sense exercise of our higher powers in order to prepare us for God's work. In the teaching of Jesus Christ prayer is the working of the miracle of Redemption in me which produces the miracle of Redemption in others by the power of God. The way fruit remains is by prayer, but remember it is prayer based on the agony of Redemption, not on my agony. Only a child gets prayer answered; a wise man does not.

Prayer is the battle; it is a matter of indifference where you are. Whichever way God engineers circumstances, the duty is to pray. Never allow the thought – “I am of no use where I am;” because you certainly can be of no use where you are not. Wherever God has dumped you down in circumstances pray, ejaculate to Him all the time. “Whatsoever ye ask in My name, that will I do.” We won't pray unless we get thrills, that is the intensest form of spiritual selfishness. We have to labour along the line of God's direction, and He says pray. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest.”

There is nothing thrilling about a labouring man's work, but it is the labouring man who makes the conceptions of the genius possible; and it is the labouring saint who makes the conceptions of his Master possible. You labour at prayer and results happen all the time from His standpoint. What an astonishment it will be to find, when the veil is lifted, the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you had been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.

因他们是为主的名出外，对于外邦人一无所取。（约翰三书7节）

主曾告诉我们，怎样才是爱祂。“你爱我吗？（约翰福音21：15-17） ”“你喂养我的羊。（约翰福音21：15-17） ”——把你放在我对人的关怀里，而不是把我放在你对人的兴趣里。哥林多前书13：4-8节“爱是恒久忍耐，又有恩慈；爱是不嫉妒；爱是不自夸，不张狂，不作害羞的事，不求自己的益处，不轻易发怒，不计算人的恶，不喜欢不义，只喜欢真理；凡事包容，凡事相信，凡事盼望，凡事忍耐。爱是永不止息。 ”描述这爱的品质，是神自己的爱。我对主耶稣爱的考验，是在实际事情上，其他的不过是空口的卖弄爱情。

我对主耶稣的忠心，是圣灵在我心里做成超自然的救赎圣工，把神的爱浇灌在我心里。这爱在我与人接触时，就产生功效。虽然一切的常理都否定祂，说祂好像晨雾般虚渺，但我仍忠于祂的名。

传道者忠贞的要决，就是单归附主耶稣，不受任何人任何事的缠累，但又不是与外界隔绝。主不断与外界事物接触，祂的分别为圣，是在于内心朝向神。外表的隔绝，往往表示人里面暗暗地恋慕着表面上拒绝的东西。

传道者的忠贞，是要保持心灵单向主耶稣开敞。主所差派出去做工的人，均是平凡人，只是圣灵在他们里面加上专一不移的忠贞。

October 18 The Key To Missionary Devotion

“For His name's sake they went forth.” 3 John 7

Our Lord has told us how love to Him is to manifest itself. “Lovest thou Me?” “Feed My sheep” – identify yourself with My interests in other people, not, identify Me with your interests in other people. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 gives the character of this love, it is the love of God expressing itself. The test of my love for Jesus is the practical one, all the rest is sentimental jargon.

Loyalty to Jesus Christ is the supernatural work of Redemption wrought in me by the Holy Ghost Who sheds abroad the love of God in my heart, and that love works efficaciously through me in contact with everyone I meet. I remain loyal to His Name although every common-sense fact gives the lie to Him, and declares that He has no more power than a morning mist.

The key to missionary devotion means being attached to nothing and no one saving Our Lord Himself, not being detached from things externally. Our Lord was amazingly in and out among ordinary things; His detachment was on the inside towards God. External detachment is often an indication of a secret vital attachment to the things we keep away from externally.

The loyalty of a missionary is to keep his soul concentratedly open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The men and women Our Lord sends out on His enterprises are the ordinary human stuff, plus dominating devotion to Himself wrought by the Holy Ghost.

我的国不属这世界。 (约18:36)

如今主耶穌基督很大的敌人，是我们对实际事工的观念，它不从新约圣经而来，而是从这世界的系统而来，在支持各种活动上付出了无穷的精力，几乎没有了与神同在的个人关系。把重点放在了错误的事情上。耶穌说：“ 神的国来到不是眼所能见的。因为 神的国就在你们心里。”（路17:20-21）它是一个隐藏的、不明显的事物。一个活跃的基督徒工人经常活在商店的橱窗里。其实，只有内心的最深处才展现出生命的力量。

我们必须除去现在所处的宗教时代的精神灾祸，在主的生命里，并没有那种我们热崇的事工活动所出现的拥挤和匆促，作主门徒的要象他的主一样。耶穌基督的国度里最中心的事，是与他的个人关系，而不是对人的外在贡献。

这所圣经训练学院的力量，不在于实际的活动。它全部的力量在于这个事实：将你浸透在神的里面。你根本不知道神要如何安排你的环境，也不知道你要在国内或者国外遭遇怎样的压力，如果你浪费你的时间、精力在过于活跃的活动上，而不是沉浸在关于神的救赎的伟大基要真理上，当压力来时你就会被折断。但是，如果花时间沉浸在神的里面，切实地在神里面扎根，那么无论发生什么，你都将保持对他的忠诚。

October 19 The Unheeded Secret

“My kingdom is not of this world.” John 18:36

The great enemy to the Lord Jesus Christ in the present day is the conception of practical work that has not come from the New Testament, but from the systems of the world in which endless energy and activities are insisted upon, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, for lo the kingdom of God is within you,” a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives in the shop window. It is the innermost of the innermost that reveals the power of the life.

We have to get rid of the plague of the spirit of the religious age in which we live. In Our Lord's life there was none of the press and rush of tremendous activity that we regard so highly, and the disciple is to be as His Master. The central thing about the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship to Himself, not public usefulness to men.

It is not its practical activities that are the strength of this Bible Training College, its whole strength lies in the fact that here you are put into soak before God. You have no idea of where God is going to engineer your circumstances, no knowledge of what strain is going to be put on you either at home or abroad, and if you waste your time in over-active energies instead of getting into soak on the great fundamental truths of God's Redemption, you will snap when the strain comes; but if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in God on the unpractical line, you will remain true to Him what ever happens.

“ 神的旨意就是要你们成为圣洁。”帖前4：3

神是否愿意使我成圣并不是一个问题，而是这是我的心愿吗？我是否愿意让神将所有赎罪已经成功的事做在我的里面？我是否愿意让耶穌成为我的圣洁，让耶穌的生命在我的肉身里彰显？当心你会说：“噢，我渴望成圣。”其实，你并非如此，你要停止渴望，付出实际行动达到预定目标。“我两手空空。”要以绝对的信心接受耶稣基督成为你的圣洁，耶稣救赎的伟大奇跡将在你里面成为真实。耶穌所成就的一切,因着神充满爱的礼物白白的给了你。作为一个得救和得以成圣的灵魂，我的态度是完全谦卑的圣洁（并没有骄傲的圣洁这件事），这圣洁是基于痛苦难忍的悔改，及无法言说的羞愧和降卑；同时令人惊异地认识到，当我根本对他毫不在意时，神的爱将自己托付给我，他为我的得救和成圣完成了一切（参看罗5:8）。保罗说没有一件事“能叫我们与 神的爱隔绝；这爱是在我们的主基督耶穌里的。”（罗8:39）

成圣使我与耶穌基督合一，并在他里面与神合一，这只能藉由基督的赎罪才能做到。不要把效果当成原因。在我里面的效果是顺服、事奉和祷告，这是出于无法用言语表达的感谢和崇拜，为着因赎罪而在我里面做出的非凡的成圣。

October 20 Is God's Will My Will?

“This is the will of God, even your sanctification.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3

It is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me; is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me all that has been made possible by the Atonement? Am I willing to let Jesus be made sanctification to me, and to let the life of Jesus be manifested in my mortal flesh? Beware of saying – Oh, I am longing to be sanctified. You are not, stop longing and make it a matter of transaction – “Nothing in my hands I bring.” Receive Jesus Christ to be made sanctification to you in implicit faith, and the great marvel of the Atonement of Jesus will be made real in you. All that Jesus made possible is made mine by the free loving gift of God on the ground of what He performed, my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness), a holiness based on agonizing repentance and a sense of unspeakable shame and degradation; and also on the amazing realization that the love of God commended itself to me in that while I cared nothing about Him, He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification (see Rom. 5:8. R.V.). No wonder Paul says nothing is “able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God, and it is done only through the superb Atonement of Christ. Never put the effect as the cause. The effect in me is obedience and service and prayer, and is the out come of speechless thanks and adoration for the marvellous sanctification wrought out in me because of the Atonement.

“你们却要在至圣的真道上造就自己。”犹 20

我们的主既没有冲动的本性，也不是冷血无情，他有一种镇定的力量永远不会陷入恐慌。我们大多数人是按着自己性情的方式来过基督徒的生活，而不是按着神的方式。冲动是天然生命的特性，但我们的主却总是不顾它，因为冲动会阻碍门徒生命的成长。留意神的灵如何阻止我们的冲动，他的阻止带来一种自觉愚蠢仓促，使我们立刻想要为自己辩护。对于一个孩子，冲动还可以接受，但对于一个大人，冲动就是灾难性的了。一个冲动的人常是一个耍小孩子脾气的人。冲动必须要藉着管教训练成为直觉。

作门徒完全建造在神超自然的恩典上。行走在水面对于凭着一股冲动的勇气是容易的，但行走在干地上作耶稣基督的门徒却是一件不同的事情。彼得在水面上向耶稣走去，但在地上却远远地跟着他。我们不需要神的恩典去面对危机，人的本性和骄傲已经足够了。我们可以高贵地面对压力，但每天二十四小时活出圣徒的生活，像一个门徒一样经受劳苦，过一个平凡、没人留意、被人忽视的生活，就一定需要神超自然的恩典。我们的天性想要为神做一件特别的事，但不需要这样。我们应当在平凡事上成为不平凡，在简陋的街道中，在卑劣的人群中成为圣洁，这不是五分钟学得会的功课。

October 21 Direction By Impulse

“Building up yourselves on your most holy faith.” Jude 20

There was nothing either of the nature of impulse or of cold-bloodedness about Our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the line of our temperament, not along the line of God. Impulse is a trait in natural life, but Our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God checks impulse, His checks bring a rush of self-conscious foolishness which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulse is all right in a child, but it is disastrous in a man or woman; an impulsive man is always a petted man. Impulse has to be trained into intuition by discipline.

Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on the water is easy to impulsive pluck, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is a different thing. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he followed Him afar off on the land. We do not need the grace of God to stand crises, human nature and pride are sufficient, we can face the strain magnificently; but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes.

圣灵与我们的心同证……（罗八16）

我们常存交易的心到神面前。我们顺服神吩咐之前，先要求印证。“为什么神不向我显示他自己？”他不能。不是他不肯，而是不能，因为你若不完全降服于神，你就成为神向你显示的拦阻。你一降服，他就即时为自己作见证；他不能向你见证，乃是向他在你里面的本性见证。若你先得着见证，那不过是情感作用。在你不再理论争辩的那一刻，神便见证他的作为，你会因自己的悖逆而诧异，因为你竟让神苦等。若你仍为神是否能救人脱罪的问题争辩的话，最好是让他去做，或干脆对他说：“你无此能力”。不要引用这人或那人的话，试试马太福音十一章28节的话－－“到我这里来。”你若劳苦担重担，来吧；你若自知有罪，求吧（路十一13）。

我们天然常理的抉择，往往来得很简单，很容易误认作圣灵的见证；可是，圣灵只对他的本性和救赎的工作见证，而不能向我们的推理见证。若一味要圣灵向我们的理性见证，难怪我们总在黑暗疑云中。把这些一概抛开，信靠神，他自然给我们见证。

祈祷◆主啊，我无助地来到你面前，却盼望因着你的灵的内住，我可以被你的爱、你神性无私的属性、你慈怜的忍耐所充满，不再被个人的因素所伤害。

October 22 The Witness Of The Spirit

“The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit. . .” Romans 8:16 (R.V.)

We are in danger of getting the barter spirit when we come to God, we want the witness before we have done what God tells us to do. “Why does not God reveal Himself to me?” He cannot, it is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the road as long as you won't abandon absolutely to Him. Immediately you do, God witnesses to Himself, He cannot witness to you, but He witnesses instantly to His own nature in you. If you had the witness before the reality, it would end in sentimental emotion. Immediately you transact on the Redemption, and stop the impertinence of debate, God gives on the witness. As soon as you abandon reasoning and argument, God witnesses to what He has done, and we are amazed at our impertinence in having kept Him waiting. If you are in debate as to whether God can deliver from sin, either let Him do it, or tell Him He cannot. Do not quote this and that person, try Matthew 11:28 – “Come unto Me.” Come, if you are weary and heavy laden; ask, if you know you are evil (Luke 11:13).

The Spirit of God witnesses to the Redemption of Our Lord, He does not witness to anything else; He cannot witness to our reason. The simplicity that comes from our natural common-sense decisions is apt to be mistaken for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of Redemption, never to our reason. If we try to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder we are in darkness and perplexity. Fling it all overboard, trust in Him, and He will give the witness.

“若有人在基督里，他就是新造的人，旧事已过，都变成新的了。”林后5:17

我们的主从不看护我们的成见，他只克服它们，清理它们。我们想像神对我们的特别成见有着特别的兴趣；我们很肯定神不会像对付其他人那样对付我们。“神一定会非常严厉的对付其他人，他当然知道我的成见是对的。”可是我们必须认识到神不但不站在我们的成见这边，反而有意地要将它们清扫出去。我们所受的道德教育的一部分是，让神的旨意除去我们的成见，并看看他怎么做。神毫不在意我们带给他什么。神只想要我们做一件事，就是无条件的降服。

当我们重生的时候，圣灵开始将他的新创造做在我们里面，必有一天旧秩序所遗留的会荡然无存，离开旧的仪式，离开旧的态度，“所有的都是属神的。”我们如何得到那没有情欲、没有自我利益、对别人的刺痛不敏感、有不轻易发怒的爱、不思想罪恶、常待人有恩慈的生命呢？唯一的办法是不让一点点旧生命留下来，而只单单完全地信靠神，以致我们不再想要神的祝福，只想要他自己。我们是否到达一个地步，神可以撤回他的祝福而不会影响我们对他的信靠？当一旦我们看到神在做工，我们就不会为所发生的事烦扰，因为我们正实际的信靠我们在天上的父，他是这世界无法看到的。

October 23 Not A Bit Of It!

“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Our Lord never nurses our prejudices, He mortifies them, runs clean athwart them. We imagine that God has a special interest in our particular prejudices; we are quite sure that God will never deal with us as He has to deal with other people. “God must deal with other people in a very stern way, but of course He knows that my prejudices are all right.” We have to learn – “Not a bit of it!” Instead of God being on the side of our prejudices, He is deliberately wiping them out. It is part of our moral education to have our prejudices run straight across by His providence, and to watch how He does it. God pays no respect to anything we bring to Him. There is only one thing God wants of us, and that is our unconditional surrender.

When we are born again, the Holy Spirit begins to work His new creation in us, and there will come a time when there is not a bit of the old order left, the old solemnity goes, the old attitude to things goes, and “all things are of God.” How are we going to get the life that has no lust, no self-interest, no sensitiveness to pokes, the love that is not provoked, that thinketh no evil, that is always kind? The only way is by allowing not a bit of the old life to be left; but only simple perfect trust in God, such trust that we no longer want God's blessings, but only want Himself. Have we come to the place where God can withdraw His blessings and it does not affect our trust in Him? When once we see God at work, we will never bother our heads about things that happen, because we are actually trusting in our Father in Heaven Whom the world cannot see.

“感谢 神！常率领我们在基督里夸胜。”林后2：14

对于一个为神工作的工人，他的观点不能是接近他所能达到的最高，而必须是最高。要当心只是费力地维持神的观点，要每天这样做，一点点地，不要考虑期限。没有任何外在的力量可以触到神的观点。

我们要维持的观点乃是，我们在这世上单单是为一个目的，即成为基督得胜的军队中的俘虏。我们不是在神的陈列室里，我们在世是要展示一件事－－我们的生命被耶稣基督绝对的俘虏。其他的观点是何等渺小－－“我在独自为耶稣争战，我要维持基督的事业，为他坚守岗位”。保罗说，我在胜利者的队伍里，无论遇到什么困难，我总是在得胜中。这个观念是否实际在我们里面运行呢？保罗喜乐的秘诀是神带领他，一个双手沾染了鲜血的反叛耶稣基督的人，成为了耶稣基督的俘虏，现在这就是他在世的全部目的。保罗的喜乐就是成为主的俘虏，对天地里的一切再没有其他的兴趣。对于一个基督徒来说，谈论如何得到胜利是一件羞耻的事。得胜者应当完全的得着我们，以致始终都是他的得胜，我们也藉着他成为了得胜者。

“因为我们在 神面前，无论在得救的人身上，或灭亡的人身上，都有基督馨香之气。”（15节）我们被耶稣的香气包围，无论我们走到哪里，都叫神舒畅，使人奇妙的恢复与神的关系。

October 24 The Viewpoint

“Now thanks be to God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 2:14

The viewpoint of a worker for God must not be as near the highest as he can get, it must be the highest. Be careful to maintain strenuously God's point of view, it has to be done every day, bit by bit; don't think on the finite. No outside power can touch the viewpoint.

The viewpoint to maintain is that we are here for one purpose only, viz., to be captives in the train of Christ's triumphs. We are not in God's showroom, we are here to exhibit one thing – the absolute captivity of our lives to Jesus Christ. How small the other points of view are – I am standing alone battling for Jesus; I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold this fort for Him. Paul says – I am in the train of a conqueror, and it does not matter what the difficulties are, I am always led in triumph. Is this idea being worked out practically in us? Paul's secret joy was that God took him, a red-handed rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive, and now that is all he is here for. Paul's joy was to be a captive of the Lord, he had no other interest in heaven or in earth. It is a shameful thing for a Christian to talk about getting the victory. The Victor ought to have got us so completely that it is His victory all the time, and we are more than conquerors through Him.

“For we are unto God a sweet saviour of Christ.” We are enwheeled with the odour of Jesus, and wherever we go we are a wonderful refreshment to God.

“向什么样的人，我就作什么样的人。无论如何总要救些人。”林前 9：22

一个基督徒工人要学会如何在卑贱的事中成为属神的高尚之人。千万不要用这个藉口－－如果我在其他地方就好了！所有属神的人都是平凡人，只是因神所给予他们的内容而成为特别。除非我们在心智和情感上都有了正确的内容，否则我们会对神毫无用处。我们不是选择作神的工人。许多人刻意地选择作神的工人，但在他们里面没有神全能的恩典，也没有他大能的话语。保罗的整个心、思想和灵魂都被耶稣基督降世的伟大使命所吸引，他从没有忘记这件事。我们也要自己面对这个中心的事实－－耶稣基督并他钉十字架。

“我已经拣选了你。”要在你的信条里牢记这伟大的话语。不是你得到了神，而是他得到了你。在这所学校里，神在做工，他改变人，他打碎人，他模造人，按照他所拣选的去做。我们不知道他为什么做这个，他只是为了一个唯一的目的－－就是他可以说，这是属于我的男人，这是属于我的女人。我们要在神的手里，好让他把人栽种在磐石上，就像栽种我们一样。

不要自己选择去做一个工人，但是当神呼召你时，如果你左推右搪，就有祸了。他会在你身上做些事情，是呼召你以前所未做过的；他会对付你，不像对其他人那样。让他按他的方式做吧。

October 25 The Eternal Crush Of Things

“I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” 1 Corinthians 9:22

A Christian worker has to learn how to be God's noble man or woman amid a crowd of ignoble things. Never make this plea – If only I were somewhere else! All God's men are ordinary men made extraordinary by the matter He has given them. Unless we have the right matter in our minds intellectually and in our hearts affectionately, we will be hustled out of usefulness to God. We are not workers for God by choice. Many people deliberately choose to be workers, but they have no matter in them of God's almighty grace, no matter of His mighty word. Paul's whole heart and mind and soul were taken up with the great matter of what Jesus Christ came to do, he never lost sight of that one thing. We have to face ourselves with the one central fact – Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

“I have chosen you.” Keep that note of greatness in your creed. It is not that you have got God but that He has got you. Here, in this College, God is at work, bending, breaking, moulding, doing just as He chooses. Why He is doing it, we do not know; He is doing it for one purpose only – that He may be able to say, This is My man, My woman. We have to be in God's hand so that He can plant men on the Rock as He has planted us.

Never choose to be a worker, but when God has put His call on you, woe be to you if you turn to the right hand or to the left. He will do with you what He never did with you before the call came; He will do with you what He is not doing with other people. Let Him have His way.

“父怎样差遣了我，我也照样差遣你们。”约 20：21

宣教士是被耶稣所差遣的人，正如耶稣被神差遣一样。最重要的不是人的需要，而是耶稣的命令。激励我们为神工作的根源是在后面，而不是在前面。今日的趋势是将激励放在前面，把每一件事带到我们面前，使其达到我们对胜利的看法。在新约里面，激励是放在我们后头，就是主耶稣。目标是向他真诚，实现他的事业。

一定不可以忽视个人对主耶稣和他的观点的忠诚。在宣教事业中，很大的危险是神的呼召被人的需要逐渐削弱，以致人的同情心绝对地压倒了被耶稣差遣的意义。需要是如此巨大，环境是如此令人困惑，以致我们心思里的所有力量都动摇和失败。我们忘记了在所有宣教事业背后最大的原因首先不是人的高尚，不是人的教育，也不是满足他们的需要；居首位的和最重要的是耶稣基督的命令－－“所以，你们要去，使万民作我的门徒。”（太28：19）

当回过头来看属神的男女的生平，趋向说－－“他们有何等奇妙机敏的智慧！他们如此完全地明白神的旨意！”其实这机敏的心思乃是神的心思，根本不是人的智慧。我们本当信任神的属天指引的时候，我们却信任人的智慧；神藉着小孩子一样的人来引导我们，他们是“愚拙”而完全信靠神的智慧和他超自然才能的人。

祈祷◆主啊，求你今天在我的祷告、敬拜和工作中，以你的灵重新膏抹我，以致在一切事情上，你都可以得居优越的位置。

October 26 What Is A Missionary?

“As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” John 20:21

A missionary is one sent by Jesus Christ as He was sent by God. The great dominant note is not the needs of men, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in work for God is behind, not before. The tendency to-day is to put the inspiration ahead, to sweep everything in front of us and bring it all out to our conception of success. In the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, the Lord Jesus. The ideal is to be true to Him, to carry out His enterprises.

Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and His point of view is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary enterprise the great danger is that God's call is effaced by the needs of the people until human sympathy absolutely overwhelms the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, the conditions so perplexing, that every power of mind falters and fails. We forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary enterprise is not first the elevation of the people, nor the education of the people, nor their needs; but first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ – “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.”

When looking back on the lives of men and women of God the tendency is to say – What wonderfully astute wisdom they had! How perfectly they understood all God wanted! The astute mind behind is the Mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the Divine guidance of God through childlike people who were foolish enough to trust God's wisdom and the supernatural equipment of God.

所以你们要去，使万民作我的门徒。（太二十八19）

耶稣基督不是说：“去拯救灵魂。”（灵魂的得救，是神超然的工作。）他乃是说：“去，使万民作我的门徒。”除非你自己先作门徒，否则无法叫人作门徒。昔日门徒第一次奉差遣出去，因为污鬼也服了他们，欢乐而回。耶稣就说：“不要因工作成功而欢欣；快乐最大的秘诀，是与我保持正确的关系。”宣教士最要紧的是对神的呼召效忠，知道他唯一的目标是使人作主的门徒。有时对灵魂的热切，不是由神而来，而是出于想人家跟从自己的观点。

宣教士的挑战，并不是人难以得救；不是退后的人难以回转；也不是人的冷漠、毫不动心；而是他与主耶稣基督的关系。“你们信我能作这事吗？”我们的主不断问这个问题，每遇一事，主都会这样问。我们唯一的大挑战是－－我认识我的复活主吗？我认识他内居的灵的大能吗？我是否因着对主耶稣话语的完全信靠，以致在神眼中成为智慧的，而在世界看来却是愚拙？还是我抛弃了那超然的地位，也就是神对宣教士唯一的呼召－－对主耶稣基督无限的信赖？我若用其他任何方法，就脱离了主所定下的方法了，主说：“天上地下所有的权柄都赐给我了，所以你们要去……”

祈祷◆噢，主啊，吸引我靠近你；愿我以你自己为荣，因为你将我这样的一个罪人，变成你有用的仆人。

October 27 The Method Of Missions

“Go ye therefore, and teach (disciple) all nations.” Matthew 28:19

Jesus Christ did not say – Go and save souls (the salvation of souls is the supernatural work of God), but – “Go and teach,” i.e., disciple, “all nations,” and you cannot make disciples unless you are a disciple yourself. When the disciples came back from their first mission they were filled with joy because the devils were subject to them, and Jesus said – Don't rejoice in successful service; the great secret of joy is that you are rightly related to Me. The great essential of the missionary is that he remains true to the call of God, and realizes that his one purpose is to disciple men and women to Jesus. There is a passion for souls that does not spring from God, but from the desire to make converts to our point of view.

The challenge to the missionary does not come on the line that people are difficult to get saved, that backsliders are difficult to reclaim, that there is a wadge of callous indifference; but along the line of his own personal relationship to Jesus Christ. “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” Our Lord puts that question steadily, it faces us in every individual case we meet. The one great challenge is – Do I know my Risen Lord? Do I know the power of His indwelling Spirit? Am I wise enough in God's sight, and foolish enough according to the world, to bank on what Jesus Christ has said, or am I abandoning the great supernatural position, which is the only call for a missionary, viz., boundless confidence in Christ Jesus? If I take up any other method I depart altogether from the methods laid down by Our Lord – “All power is given unto Me . . , therefore go ye.”

因为我们作仇敌的时候，且藉着神儿子的死，得与神和好，既已和好，就更要因他的生得救了。（罗五10）

我不是因我的信得救，我是因着信，知道自己得救。悔改不能救我；悔改只表示我体会神在基督耶稣里所成就的。危险的是把重点放在果效，而不放在原因上。因为我顺服，所以与神和好－－我的成圣。不！我与神和好，是因为在一切以先，基督死了。当我转向神，凭信心接纳神所启示我－－耶稣基督救赎的大能－－就立时进入与神和好的境地；又凭着神恩典超然的神迹，我立在称义的地位上。这不是因为我认罪，不是因为我悔改，而是因为主耶稣所成就的。神的灵带来一道透彻的光芒，于是我知道自己得救了，虽然我不知道这到底怎样发生的。

神的救赎并不建基于人的逻辑，乃建基于耶稣的舍身。我们得以重生，是因为主的救赎。有罪的人可以成为新造的人，不是由于他们悔改，不是由于他们相信，乃是由于神在主耶稣里奇妙的工作，这是一切经历之首。称义成圣的稳固保障，是神自己。我们不必去做什么，因为一切已在救赎中作成了。神奇妙的作为使超然的成为自然，我们可以认识主耶稣已成就的－－“成了”。

祈祷◆主啊，因着在你这位众光之父里，“没有改变，也没有转动的影儿”，我便欢喜快乐。愿你使我能辨别你的统治和管理。

October 28 Justification By Faith

“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Romans 5:10

I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing. It is not repentance that saves me, repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause. It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration. Never! I am put right with God because prior to all, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals I can accept, instantly the stupendous Atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God; and by the supernatural miracle of God's grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved.

The salvation of God does not stand on human logic, it stands on the sacrificial Death of Jesus. We can be born again because of the Atonement of Our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creatures, not by their repentance or their belief, but by the marvellous work of God in Christ Jesus which is prior to all experience. The impregnable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We have not to work out these things ourselves; they have been worked out by the Atonement. The supernatural becomes natural by the miracle of God; there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done – “It is finished.”

神使那无罪的，替我们成为罪，好叫我们在他里面成为神的义。（林后五21）

现代人以为耶稣为我们的罪死，是因为他同情我们。但新约的观点却不然，他并非因同情而背负我们的罪，他乃是因为与我们认同。神使他成为罪。他的死，叫我们得以除罪；而他的死，是顺服他父的旨意，而不是出于对我们的同情。我们蒙神悦纳，不是因为顺服，或答应放弃什么东西，乃是因为基督的死，除此别无他法。我们说耶稣基督来，是彰显神为父的地位，和他的恩慈；但新约却说：他来是担当世人的罪。他彰显父神，只是向那些认他为救主的人。主从来没有向世人说他自己就是彰显父神的那一位，他只说自己是绊脚石（约十五22-24）。约翰福音十四章第9节是对门徒说的。

新约从没有说基督为我死，所以我就免罚了。新约的教训是“他为万人死”（不是代替了我死），而我在他的死上与他合一，就从罪中得着释放，并承受了他的义。新约所教导的代替是有双重的意义：“神使那无罪的，替我们成为罪，好叫我们在他里面成为神的义。”除非我决意让基督成形在我里面，否则，基督就不是“替”我死了。

祈祷◆主啊，为着再次感受到与你之间有着喜乐的相交，我赞美你。愿你将平静的思想和坚定的决心赐给我。让我毫无怀疑和毫不偏斜地属于你。

October 29 Substitution

“He hath made Him to be sin for us . . . that we might be made the righteousness of God. . .” 2 Corinthians 5:21

The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy. The New Testament view is that He bore our sin not by sympathy, but by identification. He was made to be sin. Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the explanation of His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy with us. We are acceptable with God not because we have obeyed, or because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and in no other way. We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the Fatherhood of God, the loving-kindness of God; the New Testament says He came to bear away the sin of the world. The revelation of His Father is to those to whom He has been introduced as Saviour. Jesus Christ never spoke of Himself to the world as one Who revealed the Father, but as a stumbling block (see John 15:22- 24). John 14:9 was spoken to His disciples.

That Christ died for me, therefore I go scot free, is never taught in the New Testament. What is taught in the New Testament is that “He died for all” (not – He died my death), and that by identification with His death I can be freed from sin, and have imparted to me His very righteousness. The substitution taught in the New Testament is twofold: “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” It is not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me.

人非有信，就不能得神的喜悦。（来十一6）

反常理的信心，是宗教狂热；反信心的常理，是理性主义。信心的生活却将二者调和成正确的关系。常理不是信心，信心也非常理。二者代表了自然与超然的关系，直觉与启示的关系。耶稣基督所说的一切话，非从常理，乃从启示，在常理无效之际，他的话依然有效。信心必须受试验，然后这信心才真实。“我们知道万事都互相效力”，这样，无论什么事发生，神的炼金术总能把理想的信心变作实际。信心必须从个人开始，神整个计划就是使理想的信心，在他儿女身上实现。

日常生活中每一细节，都在启示神，叫我们可以在实际经历中，证实我们所信的。信心是一项极主动的原则，总把主耶稣放在首位－－“主啊，你这样说过（太六33），看来全不合理，但我要依你的话去做。”若要把头脑的信心变成个人产业，便时常都要经历争战，不是偶尔经历。神放我们在某一环境中，是要教育我们的信心；因为信心的本性是使目标成真。在我们认识耶稣之前，神只是一个抽象的概念，我们无法对祂有信心；但一旦听见耶稣说：“人看见了我，就看见了父。”我们就有了实际的东西，信心就毫无止境。信心就是透过耶稣基督之灵的能力，全人与神建立正确的关系。

祈祷◆但如今，“神啊，求你坚固我的手”－－主啊，请在这一刻，到我这里来，以你自己来充满我，那么，我便不会再有未满足的渴求。

October 30 Faith

“Without faith it is impossible to please Him.” Hebrews 11:6

Faith in antagonism to common sense is fanaticism, and common sense in antagonism to faith is rationalism. The life of faith brings the two into a right relation. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual; of impulse and inspiration. Nothing Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, it is revelation sense, and it reaches the shores where common sense fails. Faith must be tried before the reality of faith is actual. “We know that all things work together for good,” then no matter what happens, the alchemy of God's providence transfigures the ideal faith into actual reality. Faith always works on the personal line, the whole purpose of God being to see that the ideal faith is made real in His children.

For every detail of the common-sense life, there is a revelation fact of God whereby we can prove in practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle which always puts Jesus Christ first – Lord, Thou hast said so and so (e.g., Matthew 6:33), it looks mad, but I am going to venture on Thy word. To turn head faith into a personal possession is a fight always, not sometimes. God brings us into circumstances in order to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make its object real. Until we know Jesus, God is a mere abstraction, we can not have faith in Him; but immediately we hear Jesus say – “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,” we have something that is real, and faith is boundless. Faith is the whole man rightly related to God by the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

你们若有信心像一粒芥菜种（太十七20）

我们往往认为神会因我们的信心报答我们。初时可能是这样，但其实我们不能藉信心赚取什么。信心使我们与神的关系正确，以致神有机会作工。你若是圣徒，神往往要把你的经验底板抽去，好使你直接与他接触。神要你明白，这是信心的生命，而不是情感化地享受他祝福的生命。你早期的信心生命是狭窄的、紧张的，环绕着一小撮光明的经历，满了阳光与甜蜜，可是其中信心的成份，与常理的成份差不多同等。后来神把可见的祝福挪开，教你行信心的路，你如今在他手上更有价值，远超那些感觉喜乐、满有激动见证的日子。

信心必须经过试验。信心真正的考验，不是在于我们觉得难以信靠神，而是在于我们对神的性情必须有清楚的认识。信心的实现，必须经过一连串个别孤立的考验。不要把信心的试验与一般生活的操练混为一谈。许多我们成为信心的考验，不过是活在地上无法避免的事情。圣经中的信心，是在一切违反神自己的事上，还持定信神－－“不管神怎样做，我必定忠于神的本性。”“他虽然杀我，我仍要信靠他。”－－这是圣经中信心的最高表现。

祈祷◆主啊，今天早上，一堆微小但实际的事情挤进我的思想，我将它们直接带到你的面前。你以智慧说：“住了吧！静了吧！”愿我们那接受你吩咐的生命，承认你的平静是何等美好。

October 31 Discernment Of Faith

“Faith as a grain of mustard seed. . .” Matthew 17:20

We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, it may be so in the initial stages; but we do not earn anything by faith, faith brings us into right relationship with God and gives God His opportunity. God has frequently to knock the bottom board out of your experience if you are a saint in order to get you into contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of sentimental enjoyment of His blessings. Your earlier life of faith was narrow and intense, settled around a little sun-spot of experience that had as much of sense as of faith in it, full of light and sweetness; then God withdrew His conscious blessings in order to teach you to walk by faith. You are worth far more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight and thrilling testimony.

Faith by its very nature must be tried, and the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God's character has to be cleared in our own minds. Faith in its actual working out has to go through spells of unsyllabled isolation. Never confound the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, much that we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith in the Bible is faith in God against everything that contradicts Him – I will remain true to God's character whatever He may do. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” – this is the most sublime utterance of faith in the whole of the Bible.