因为凡遵守全法律的，只在一条上跌倒，他就是犯了众条。（雅二10)

律法并不因我们是软弱的人而稍徇情面，它不理会我们有什么遗传因素和缺陷，只要求我们绝对道德。律法从不更改，不管你是最高尚还是最软弱的，它永远都不改变。神所定的律法，并不迁就人的软弱，也不因人的缺点而修改，它是永远绝对的。我们若不领会这一点，是因为我们并未真正活着；一旦活着，生命就成了一个悲剧。“我以前没有律法是活着的，但是诫命来到，罪又活了，我就死了。”若明白这点，神的灵就叫我们自知有罪。除非人到了自知绝望的地步，否则耶稣基督的十字架不过是一场闹剧。自觉有罪，叫人对捆绑人的律法产生恐惧，又叫人绝望，因为“被卖给罪”。我，一个污秽的罪人，永无法与神和好，是绝无可能的。只有一个方法可以与神和好，就是藉耶稣基督的死。我必须除掉那潜伏的思想，以为可以因顺服得与神和好－－有谁能绝对完全顺服神哩！

当律法带着“假若”而来，我们才体会它势力之大。神从不勉强我们。我们有时想神逼我们去做，但心情变了时，又想神不要管我们。当神的旨意得势，就不会有被逼的感觉了。我们若是定志顺服他，他就会以无穷的大能，召唤最远的星，及最后的一粒沙来帮助我们。

祈祷◆主啊，我完全投向你。愿这样的气氛充满我们、环绕我们，好叫我们成为涌流活水江河的人。

December 1 The Law And The Gospel

“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10

The moral law does not consider us as weak human beings at all, it takes no account of our heredity and infirmities, it demands that we be absolutely moral. The moral law never alters, either for the noblest or for the weakest, it is eternally and abidingly the same. The moral law ordained by God does not make itself weak to the weak, it does not palliate our shortcomings, it remains absolute for all time and eternity. If we do not realize this, it is because we are less than alive; immediately we are alive, life becomes a tragedy. “I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” When we realize this, then the Spirit of God convicts us of sin. Until a man gets there and sees that there is no hope, the Cross of Jesus Christ is a farce to him. Conviction of sin always brings a fearful binding sense of the law, it makes a man hopeless – “sold under sin.” I, a guilty sinner, can never get right with God, it is impossible. There is only one way in which I can get right with God, and that is by the Death of Jesus Christ. I must get rid of the lurking idea that I can ever be right with God because of my obedience – which of us could ever obey God to absolute perfection!

We only realize the power of the moral law when it comes with an “if.” God never coerces us. In one mood we wish He would make us do the thing, and in another mood we wish He would leave us alone. Whenever God's will is in the ascendant, all compulsion is gone. When we choose deliberately to obey Him, then He will tax the remotest star and the last grain of sand to assist us with all His almighty power.

这不是说，我已经得着了，已经完全了……（腓三12）

以为神要把我们造成一个完全的样本，好表彰他的能力，这是个陷阱。神的目的是要我们与他合一。强调圣洁的运动，很容易使我们有一种观念，就是以为神要制造一些圣洁的样本，放在他的博物馆里。你若一心追求这种个人圣洁的观念，你生命的指标就不是神，而是你所称为彰显神的东西。你说：“神的旨意绝不会叫我生病。”若按神的旨意，他的儿子也要受压伤的话，为什么他不可以压伤你？神旨意的彰显，不在乎你认为圣徒应该怎样；你与耶稣基督的关系，才是最重要的。不论健康或生病，都要一心归依他。

信徒的完全，绝不是人的完全。信徒的完全是与神关系的完全，在人生毫不相干的大小事上显明出来。当你顺服主耶稣的呼召，第一件叫你惊讶的事，就是你所作的都无关痛痒。另一件叫你诧异的事，是别人都似乎过着合情合理的生活，他们的生活很容易使你觉得不需要神——即使单靠人努力与热心，也能达到神的要求。可是在失落的世界里，这是绝不可能的。我被召是要过一个与神有完美关系的生活，以致我的生命能引发别人对神的渴慕，而不是对我本身的钦仰。只顾自己，会减低给神使用的效能。神不是要把我塑造到十全十美，好放在陈列室里；他是要带领我到一个他可以使用我的地方。让神喜欢怎样做就怎样做。

祈祷◆主啊，今天早上，我察觉自己多么强烈的需要你；愿你照你在基督耶稣里的丰盛，满足我的需要，直至我完全被你的供应所改变。

December 2 Christian Perfection

“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. . . .” Philippians 3:12

It is a snare to imagine that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do; God's purpose is to make us one with Himself. The emphasis of holiness movements is apt to be that God is producing specimens of holiness to put in His museum. If you go off on this idea of personal holiness, the dead-set of your life will not be for God, but for what you call the manifestation of God in your life. “It can never be God's will that I should be sick.” If it was God's will to bruise His own Son, why should He not bruise you? The thing that tells for God is not your relevant consistency to an idea of what a saint should be, but your real vital relation to Jesus Christ, and your abandonment to Him whether you are well or ill.

Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship to God which shows itself amid the irrelevancies of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that strikes you is the irrelevancy of the things you have to do, and the next thing that strikes you is the fact that other people seem to be living perfectly consistent lives. Such lives are apt to leave you with the idea that God is unnecessary, by human effort and devotion we can reach the standard God wants. In a fallen world this can never be done. I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life produces a longing after God in other lives, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God is not after perfecting me to be a specimen in His show-room; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He likes.

我说的话讲的道，不是用智慧委婉的言语，乃是用圣灵和大能的明证。（林前二4）

传福音的时候，会拦阻人接触神的实体。宣扬救恩之道时，你对神的信心有根有基。千万不可依靠自己阐释的精确；在你阐释的当儿，紧记依靠圣灵。要靠赖神救赎的大能，相信这能力的确实，这样，他就要在人心中创造他自己的生命。

你一旦扎根于那真正的实体，就无可动摇。但若信心建基于经历，那么，任何事情都可以推翻你的信心；神和他救赎大能的真实，是无法推倒的；把信心建基其上，你就像神一样永远坚定。你一旦与主耶稣接触过，就永不再动摇了，这就是成圣的意思。我们若把成圣单放在经历上，忘记了成圣本身也需要先经洁净（约十七19），神就会对人的经历加以否定。我要立志把成圣的生命交给神使用，这样他能用我做他的手、他的脚。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，当我没有用足够的时间祈祷，感谢你给予那些无以言状的预感和心灵之光。主啊，如今我仰望你；愿你临近，噢，恩慈的主啊，愿你临近，并且愿你在今天赐给我恩典，使我在你里面欢喜快乐。

December 3 Not By Might Nor By Power

“And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” 1 Corinthians 2:4

If in preaching the Gospel you substitute your clear knowledge of the way of salvation for confidence in the power of the Gospel, you hinder people getting to Reality. You have to see that while you proclaim your knowledge of the way of salvation, you yourself are rooted and grounded in faith in God. Never rely on the clearness of your exposition, but as you give your exposition see that you are relying on the Holy Spirit. Rely on the certainty of God's redemptive power, and He will create His own life in souls.

When once you are rooted in Reality, nothing can shake you. If your faith is in experiences, any thing that happens is likely to upset that faith; but nothing can ever upset God or the almighty Reality of Redemption; base your faith on that, and you are as eternally secure as God. When once you get into personal contact with Jesus Christ, you will never be moved again. That is the meaning of sanctification. God puts His disapproval on human experience when we begin to adhere to the conception that sanctification is merely an experience, and forget that sanctification itself has to be sanctified (see John 17:19). I have deliberately to give my sanctified life to God for His service, so that He can use me as His hands and His feet.

得胜的……（启二7）

不管天然生命或是在恩典中的生命，都不可能没有争战。物质、精神、道德、以及属灵生命的基础，在于敌对。这是生命中显而易见的事实。健康就是物质生命与外在自然界之间的平衡。人必须内在有足够的活力，对抗外界的东西，才能维持健康。外在的东西，可以危害肉体的生命，置我于死地。在我生时养活我的东西，在我死后把我分化。我若有足够的战斗力，就有健康的平衡。精神生活也是如此，若要保持强健的智力，必须斗争，然后心智的平衡－－思想－－才能产生。

在道德方面，都是我里面德行的敌人。我能否得胜，生发善行，就视乎我道德的力量如何了。只要我一争战，在那一事上，我就有了道德。没有人的德行是自然而然的；德行是要经后天的奋斗而取得的。

灵性方面，亦是如此。耶稣说：“在世上你们有苦难。”任何不属灵的东西，都是于我有害。但“你们可以放心，我已经胜了世界。”我要学习胜过那些敌对我的，这样就可以产生圣洁的平衡；而面对敌挡，也成了兴奋的事。圣洁就是我的性情与神藉耶稣基督所表现的律，二者之间的平衡。

祈祷◆主耶稣啊，你在两千年前曾“道成肉身”，来到这世上。愿你今天再次临到这里，藉着我的肉身彰显你自己－－“基督在你里面，成为荣耀的盼望”。

December 4 The Law Of Antagonism

“To him that overcometh. . . .” Revelation 2:7

Life without war is impossible either in nature or in grace. The basis of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual life is antagonism. This is the open fact of life.

Health is the balance between physical life and external nature, and it is maintained only by sufficient vitality on the inside against things on the outside. Everything outside my physical life is designed to put me to death. Things which keep me going when I am alive, disintegrate me when I am dead. If I have enough fighting power, I produce the balance of health. The same is true of the mental life. If I want to maintain a vigorous mental life, I have to fight, and in that way the mental balance called thought is produced.

Morally it is the same. Everything that does not partake of the nature of virtue is the enemy of virtue in me, and it depends on what moral calibre I have whether I overcome and produce virtue. Immediately I fight, I am moral in that particular. No man is virtuous because he cannot help it; virtue is acquired.

And spiritually it is the same. Jesus said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation,” i.e., every thing that is not spiritual makes for my undoing, but – “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” I have to learn to score off the things that come against me, and in that way produce the balance of holiness; then it becomes a delight to meet opposition.

Holiness is the balance between my disposition and the law of God as expressed in Jesus Christ.

惟独在宝座上，我比你大。（创四十一40）

在神的主权下，我必须向神交代怎样管理自己的身体。保罗说他不能徒受神的恩典，就是把神的恩典当作无用的。神的恩典是绝对的，耶稣的救恩是完全的，是永远有功效的。我不是在蒙拯救中，乃是已经得救。救恩正如神的宝座一样永恒不改；我要作的，是把神放进我里面的活出来。“作成你们得救的功夫”是我的责任，意思是我要明明的，着力的，而不是隐秘的，以我的身子活出主耶稣的生命。“我是攻克己身，叫身服我。”每一圣徒都当把身体服在神绝对的管治下。神要我们管理整个圣灵的殿，管理自己的幻想和情感。为此我们要负责任，绝不可放任感情。我们往往严于责人，宽于恕己；为自己制造许多藉口，却定别人的罪，因为那些事是我们自己天性不喜好的。

保罗说：“我以神的慈悲劝你们，将身体献上，当作活祭。”决定的因素在于：“我同意以我的身体作神的殿吗？”若然，那我整个身体的律就总括在这个启示里：我的身体是圣灵的殿。

祈祷◆主啊，我肉身的生命若没有了你，是何等暗晦、冷漠和忧郁；求你以你神性的生命，来充满我。

December 5 The Temple Of The Holy Ghost

“Only in the throne will I be greater than thou.” Genesis 41:40

I have to account to God for the way in which I rule my body under His domination. Paul said he did not “frustrate the grace of God” – make it of no effect. The grace of God is absolute, the salvation of Jesus is perfect, it is done for ever. I am not being saved, I am saved; salvation is as eternal as God's throne; the thing for me to do is to work out what God works in. “Work out your own salvation,” I am responsible for doing it. It means that I have to manifest in this body the life of the Lord Jesus, not mystically, but really and emphatically. “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.” Every saint can have his body under absolute control for God. God has made us to have government over all the temple of the Holy Spirit, over imaginations and affections. We are responsible for these, and we must never give way to inordinate affections. Most of us are much sterner with others than we are in regard to ourselves; we make excuses for things in ourselves whilst we condemn in others things to which we are not naturally inclined.

“I beseech you,” says Paul, “present your bodies a living sacrifice.” The point to decide is this – “Do I agree with my Lord and Master that my body shall be His temple?” If so, then for me the whole of the law for the body is summed up in this revelation, that my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.

我把虹放在云彩中，这就可作我与地立约的记号了。（创九13）

神的旨意是要人类与他有道德上的关系，而他的约就是为此。“为什么神不救我？”他已经救了我，只是我还没有与他建立关系。“为什么神不作这个？又不作那个？”他已经做了，问题是我是否肯踏进这个约的关系里？神一切大恩已经作成，不过我要先因他的约，与他建立关系，这一切才成为我的。

等待神是不信的化身，表示我对他不信任；我等待神在我里面作事，好叫我可以信得过他。神不会这样做，因为这不是神与人关系的基础。在人与神的约中，人要离开自己，正如神在他与人的约中付出自己一样。问题是在于我们对神的信心－－一样非常难得的东西。我们往往只信自己的感觉；要神把东西放进我们手里，知道实在有了，否则就不肯信。得着了，就说“如今我信了。”这并不是信。“仰望我的，必然得救。”

我若当真与神立约，完全交托，不再自觉有功，不再有人的成分在内，只意识到完全与神合一，那时一切都会变得平安喜乐。

祈祷◆主啊，愿你今天以充沛的能力，以及甜蜜的恩慈和美善，来感动我们每个人的生命；让它有机会彰显你的面容和能力。

December 6 The Bow In The Cloud

“I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth.” Genesis 9:13

It is the Will of God that human beings should get into moral relationship with Him, and His covenants are for this purpose. Why does not God save me? He has saved me, but I have not entered into relationship with Him. Why does not God do this and that? He has done it, the point is – Will I step into covenant relationship? All the great blessings of God are finished and complete, but they are not mine until I enter into relationship with Him on the basis of His covenant.

Waiting for God is incarnate unbelief, it means that I have no faith in Him; I wait for Him to do something in me that I may trust in that. God will not do it, because that is not the basis of the God-and-man relationship. Man has to go out of himself in his covenant with God as God goes out of Himself in His covenant with man. It is a question of faith in God – the rarest thing; we have faith only in our feelings. I do not believe God unless He will give me something in my hand whereby I may know I have it, then I say – “Now I believe.” There is no faith there. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved.”

When I have really transacted business with God on His covenant and have let go entirely, there is no sense of merit, no human ingredient in it at all, but a complete overwhelming sense of being brought into union with God, and the whole thing is transfigured with peace and joy.

依着神的意思忧愁，就生出没有后悔的懊悔来，以致得救。（林后七10）

对罪的自责，这些话说的最贴切：“我的罪，我的罪啊，落在你身上，我的救主，多悲痛！”认罪是一个人最罕有的打击，那是认识神的门槛。耶稣基督说圣灵来，是叫人为罪自责；当圣灵唤醒人的良心，叫他面对神的时候，使他不安的，不是与人的关系，而是与神的关系－－“我向你犯罪，惟独得罪了你，在你眼前行了这恶。”认罪、赦免和圣洁三者奇妙的交织着，只有蒙赦罪的人，才成为圣洁。他蒙赦免的证据，是因着神的恩典，以致前后判若两人。悔改总叫人承认：“我犯了罪。”一个人肯这样忠心表示，就是神作工的最大明证。若非这样，那就只不过是因犯错事而生的懊悔，是鄙屑自己的一种反射作用罢了。

进入神的国度，是藉着悔改的苦痛，刺透人自以为是的高贵良善；然后圣灵来了，在人里面开始创造神儿子的生命。新生命的表彰，是明明的悔改，与不知不觉的成圣，绝不会有相反表现的。基督信仰的基石是悔改。严格来说，人无法自己悔改，悔改是神的礼物。古代清教徒就常求“眼泪的恩赐”。所以什么时候你不再觉得悔改的好处，就是在黑暗里了。试省察自己，是否已忘记了怎样知错。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，藉着你的圣灵和恩典，我的内心产生和孕育了极大的渴望－－愿我能适当地赞美你。

December 7 Repentance

“For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.” 2 Corinthians 7:10

Conviction of sin is best portrayed in the words –

“My sins, my sins, my Saviour,
How sad on Thee they fall.”

Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict of sin, and when the Holy Spirit rouses a man's conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not his relationship with men that bothers him, but his relationship with God – “against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.” The marvels of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man, he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God's grace. Repentance always brings a man to this point: I have sinned. The surest sign that God is at work is when a man says that and means it. Anything less than this is remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself.

The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man's respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life. The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a man cannot repent when he chooses; repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for “the gift of tears.” If ever you cease to know the virtue of repentance, you are in darkness. Examine yourself and see if you have forgotten how to be sorry.

因为他一次献祭，便叫那得以成圣的人永远完全。（来十14）

若以为得赦免是因为自己的悔罪，实在是践踏神儿子的血。神赦免我们，对我们无比的宽恕，是因为耶稣基督的死。我们的悔改，只是我们对他成就了的救赎工作，有个人体认而产生的后果。“基督耶稣成了我们智慧、公义、圣洁与救赎。”一旦知道基督成为我们这一切时，神无比的喜乐就开始了；神的喜乐何时止住，死亡的定案就仍然作祟。

不管我们是什么人，是怎么样的人，耶稣基督的死，都可以使我们与神重新建立关系。不是因为耶稣基督苦苦哀求，乃是因着他的死，我们才得拯救，此外别无他途。这不是赚回来的，而是白白领受。若一味苦求，故意拒绝十字架，那是绝无功效的。这样做，是叩错了主并未开启的门。我不想走那条路，把我当作罪人般看待，太屈辱了。“除他以外，别无拯救……”表面看来无情，其实是神真正的用心，开放无阻的通道，让人到他那里去。“我们在宝血中得蒙赦罪。”与基督耶稣同钉十字架，就是向一切不在他里面的东西死去。

神有理由拯救坏人，倘若他能改变他们。我们的主不会把我们的错事，一概当作对的。救赎就是神藉耶稣的死所成就的和解，叫不洁的人成为圣洁。

祈祷◆“求你使我专心敬畏你的名！”我的心充塞着自私、自觉和次好的东西，它们在我脑中盘旋，妨碍我的祈祷。主啊，愿你全能的手帮助我！

December 8 The Impartial Power Of God

“For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” Hebrews 10:14

We trample the blood of the Son of God under foot if we think we are forgiven because we are sorry for our sins. The only explanation of the forgiveness of God and of the unfathomable depth of His forgetting is the Death of Jesus Christ. Our repentance is merely the outcome of our personal realization of the Atonement which He has worked out for us. “Christ Jesus . . . is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” When we realize that Christ is made all this to us, the boundless joy of God begins; wherever the joy of God is not present, the death sentence is at work.

It does not matter who or what we are, there is absolute reinstatement into God by the death of Jesus Christ and by no other way, not because Jesus Christ pleads, but because He died. It is not earned, but accepted. All the pleading which deliberately refuses to recognize the Cross is of no avail; it is battering at another door than the one which Jesus has opened. I don't want to come that way, it is too humiliating to be received as a sinner. “There is none other Name . . .” The apparent heartlessness of God is the expression of His real heart, there is boundless entrance in His way. “We have forgiveness through His blood.” Identification with the death of Jesus Christ means identification with Him to the death of everything that never was in Him.

God is justified in saving bad men only as He makes them good. Our Lord does not pretend we are all right when we are all wrong. The Atonement is a propitiation whereby God through the death of Jesus makes an unholy man holy.

凡属基督耶稣的人，是已经把肉体，连肉体的邪情私欲，同钉在十字架上了。（加五24）

天然生命不是罪恶的，我们必须脱离罪，不再与罪有任何瓜葛。罪属于地狱和魔鬼；我，神的儿女，属于天堂和神。问题不是要放弃罪，而是放弃自己的主权，我天然的独断与自恃，是争战之所在地。天然观点看来善美正确的东西，往往使我们得不着神最好的。天然善行往往是降服于神的拦阻。洞悉这一点，就到了心灵大战的核心。少有人为错失、卑污、邪恶争辩，但却会为善德争辩。善事是至善的对头，天然善行愈高，与耶稣基督的敌对就愈劲。“在基督里的人是把肉体钉在十字架上了。”你要付出天然生命的一切，不是一部分。耶稣说：“人若要作我的门徒，就当舍己。”就是放下自己的主权；人先要认识耶稣基督是谁，才能这样放下。当心，不要拒绝参加你自主权的丧礼。

天然生命不是属灵的，只有献上，才成为属灵。若不彻底把天然生命当祭物献上，超然的生命就无法在我们里面成为天然的。这条不是康庄大道，各人必须下定决心。这也不是祈祷的问题，而是行动的问题。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我何等肯定自己需要对你有一个更崇高的观念。在这个祈求中，我愿放下所有次要的东西，为了叫自己配去荣耀你。

December 9 The Offence Of The Natural

“And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Galatians 5:24

The natural life is not sinful; we must be apostatized from sin, have nothing to do with sin in any shape or form. Sin belongs to hell and the devil; I, as a child of God, belong to heaven and God. It is not a question of giving up sin, but of giving up my right to myself, my natural independence and self-assertiveness, and this is where the battle has to be fought. It is the things that are right and noble and good from the natural stand point that keep us back from God's best. To discern that natural virtues antagonize surrender to God, is to bring our soul into the centre of its greatest battle. Very few of us debate with the sordid and evil and wrong, but we do debate with the good. It is the good that hates the best, and the higher up you get in the scale of the natural virtues, the more intense is the opposition to Jesus Christ. “They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh” – it is going to cost the natural in you everything, not something. Jesus said – “If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself,” i.e., his right to himself, and a man has to realize Who Jesus Christ is before he will do it. Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence.

The natural life is not spiritual, and it can only be made spiritual by sacrifice. If we do not resolutely sacrifice the natural, the supernatural can never become natural in us. There is no royal road there; each of us has it entirely in his own bands. It is not a question of praying, but of performing.

亚伯拉罕有两个儿子，一个是使女生的，一个是自主之妇人生的。（加四22）

保罗在加拉太书这一章中，不是讨论罪的问题，而是讨论天然与属灵二者的关系。天然的必须献上，成为属灵，否则在实际生活上，会产生很大的分歧。为什么神要命定天然生命必须被钉死？神并没有如此命定。这并不是神的命令，而是他许可的旨意。神的命令是要肉体的生命藉顺服成为属灵；因为罪，肉体的生命才必须成为祭品。

亚伯拉罕必须先献上以实玛利，才能献上以撒。不少人想在未治死肉体之先，就献属灵的祭给神。向神献属灵的祭唯一的途径，就是把身体当作活祭献上。成圣不只是脱离罪恶，乃是立志把神所救赎出来的这个自己交付神，是不惜任何代价的。

若不把天然生命献给属灵生命，那肉体生命会嘲弄神儿子在我们里面的生命，而产生一种延续的拉锯战。这是一个不受约束的属灵品性必然的后果。我们走差路，是因为执意不肯在身体、道德及心志上操练管治自己。“作孩子的时候，不受约束”。如今你必须约束自己。否则，你会毁掉整个为神而活的生命。

我们若放任肉体的生命，神就不与它同在；但当我们肯把它放逐出去，决意制服它，神就与它同在，启开活井绿洲，成就对肉体生命的一切应许。

祈祷◆愿你使这一整天，成为甘甜和喜乐的日子。愿你那随心所欲的大能，恩慈地临到我的身心灵，让我们藉此承担今天的一切事情。

December 10 The Offering Of The Natural

“Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.” Galatians 4:22

Paul is not dealing with sin in this chapter of Galatians, but with the relation of the natural to the spiritual. The natural must be turned into the spiritual by sacrifice, otherwise a tremendous divorce will be produced in the actual life. Why should God ordain the natural to be sacrificed? God did not. It is not God's order, but His permissive will. God's order was that the natural should be transformed into the spiritual by obedience; it is sin that made it necessary for the natural to be sacrificed.

Abraham had to offer up Ishmael before he offered up Isaac. Some of us are trying to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God before we have sacrificed the natural. The only way in which we can offer a spiritual sacrifice to God is by presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. Sanctification means more than deliverance from sin, it means the deliberate commitment of myself whom God has saved to God, and that I do not care what it costs.

If we do not sacrifice the natural to the spiritual, the natural life will mock at the life of the Son of God in us and produce a continual swither. This is always the result of an undisciplined spiritual nature. We go wrong because we stubbornly refuse to discipline ourselves, physically, morally or mentally. “I wasn't disciplined when I was a child.” You must discipline yourself now. If you do not, you will ruin the whole of your personal life for God.

God is not with our natural life while we pamper it; but when we put it out in the desert and resolutely keep it under, then God will be with it; and He will open up wells and oases, and fulfill all His promises for the natural.

若有人要跟从我，就当舍己。（太十六24）

个性是个人生命的外壳，会拒人千里之外，又会把人隔离。不错，个性是每个人的特质，但若错把个性当作个人生命的话，我们只会一直与人隔绝。个性是神创造的天然保障，为覆庇生命的外衣。但是若要生命与神相交，则必须放下我们的个性。个性会冒充性格，正如情欲冒充爱情。神造人的天性，是为他自己；而个性却把人的天性低贬成只为自己。

个性的特征，就是独立自主、自我表现。最拦阻属灵生命的，是个性不断涌流。你若说“我不相信”，是因为个性的拦阻。个性永不会相信。反之，性格却不能不信。圣灵在你身上作工时，会把你推到个性的尽头处，这时你只能说“我不愿”；或降服于神，打破个性的外壳，让个人生命流出来。圣灵每次往往集中在一件事上（参太五23-24）。叫你不肯与弟兄和好的，就是你的个性。神要你与他联合，可是你若不肯放下自己的主权，就无法实现。“就当舍己”－－舍弃自己独立的主权，这样，真正的生命才有生长的机会。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我的主人，愿我今天自觉地属于你，以致我与你在一起。因着你拥有了我而充满了童真的喜悦。

December 11 Individuality

“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself.” Matthew 16:24

Individuality is the husk of the personal life. Individuality is all elbows, it separates and isolates. It is the characteristic of the child and rightly so; but if we mistake individuality for the personal life, we will remain isolated. The shell of individuality is God's created natural covering for the protection of the personal life; but individuality must go in order that the personal life may come out and be brought into fellowship with God. Individuality counterfeits personality as lust counterfeits love. God designed human nature for Himself; individuality debases human nature for itself.

The characteristics of individuality are independence and self-assertiveness. It is the continual assertion of individuality that hinders our spiritual life more than anything else. If you say – “I cannot believe,” it is because individuality is in the road; individuality never can believe. Personality cannot help believing. Watch yourself when the Spirit of God is at work. He pushes you to the margins of your individuality, and you have either to say – “I shan't,” or to surrender, to break the husk of individuality and let the personal life emerge. The Holy Spirit narrows it down every time to one thing (cf. Matthew 5:23-24). The thing in you that will not be reconciled to your brother is your individuality. God wants to bring you into union with Himself, but unless you are willing to give up your right to yourself He cannot. “Let him deny himself” – deny his independent right to himself, then the real life has a chance to grow.

使他们合而为一，像我们合而为一。（约十七22）

性格就是指我们与别人不同的特质，是独特的，难以估量的，就连我们自己也往往不尽了解。海上的小岛，往往是大山顶尖。性格就如小岛，至于底下的奥秘，我们一无所知，因此便无法衡量自己。我们自以为自知，但最终才知道只有一位明白我们，就是造我们的神。

性格是属灵生命的特质，正如个性是天然生命的特质。我们只能以性格，而断不能以个别性和独立性来说明主的身份。“我与父原为一。”性格是可以融合的，只有当你与别人融合，才显出你真正身份。当爱或是神的灵激动一个人，他就会改变，不再坚持自己分隔的个别性。主从不按个性，也就是人与人隔离的身份说话，他只提到性格－－“使他们合而为一，像我们合而为一”。你若把自己的主权放弃给神，你性格的真本质就立刻向神呼应。耶稣基督把人的性格释放了，而人的个性也随之改变。改变的元素是爱，就是个人对主耶稣的忠诚。爱是人格的倾出，与另一个人格相通契合。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，这是你的日子，我祈求你以你那极大的恩福施恩给我。能够靠近你是何等的奇妙！

December 12 Personality

“That they may be one, even as we are one.” John 17:22

Personality is that peculiar, incalculable thing that is meant when we speak of ourselves as distinct from everyone else. Our personality is always too big for us to grasp. An island in the sea may be but the top of a great mountain. Personality is like an island, we know nothing about the great depths underneath, consequently we cannot estimate ourselves. We begin by thinking that we can, but we come to realize that there is only one Being Who understands us, and that is our Creator.

Personality is the characteristic of the spiritual man as individuality is the characteristic of the natural man. Our Lord can never be defined in terms of individuality and independence, but only in terms of personality, “I and My Father are one.” Personality merges, and you only reach your real identity when you are merged with another person. When love, or the Spirit of God strikes a man, he is transformed, he no longer insists upon his separate individuality. Our Lord never spoke in terms of individuality, of a man's “elbows” or his isolated position, but in terms of personality – “that they may be one, even as We are one.” If you give up your right to yourself to God, the real true nature of your personality answers to God straight away. Jesus Christ emancipates the personality, and the individuality is transfigured; the transfiguring element is love, personal devotion to Jesus. Love is the outpouring of one personality in fellowship with another personality.

常常祷告，不可灰心。（路十八1）

你若不深信救赎的实在，就无法代求；因为你只会把代求变成对人类无可奈何的同情，徒增人的自满自足，与神隔绝。代求，是把激动你心的那个人或事，带到神面前，直到你被神对那人那事的态度所推动。代求是“补满基督患难的缺欠”，无怪乎代求的人那么少。很多人说代求是“设身处地的为那人着想”，不！代求其实是把自己放在神的位置上，从他的角度看事物。

作为一个神的工人，你所知道的实情是神要你知道的，否则便会重压难当。知得过多，过于神要你知道的，你就无法祷告；因人的景况把你压下去，以致你不能进入现实去。

我们的工作是在凡事上与神联系，可是我们却因做个活跃不已的工人，而推卸这个职责。我们拼命做一些可统计的工作，但不做代求的工作。代求是完全没有缠绕网罗的，因为可使我们与神的关系完全敝开。

代求时要当心的，就是不要草草了事。心灵必须着实地接触神的生命。试想神在我们生命的路途上，叫我们遇见多少的人，而我们却轻易的让他们溜走。若我们踏稳在救赎的根基上祷告，神就会创造除代求以外无法成就的新事。

祈祷◆主啊，愿你高举我，使我靠近你，以致你那完美的闪耀着喜乐的救恩，能为着你的荣耀而临到我和照亮我。求你保守我，让我向你的代求通行无阻。

December 13 What To Pray For

“Men ought always to pray, and not to faint” Luke 18:1

You cannot intercede if you do not believe in the reality of the Redemption; you will turn intercession into futile sympathy with human beings which will only increase their submissive content to being out of touch with God. In intercession you bring the person, or the circumstance that impinges on you before God until you are moved by His attitude towards that person or circumstance. Intercession means filling up “that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ,” and that is why there are so few intercessors. Intercession is put on the line of – “Put yourself in his place.” Never! Try to put yourself in God's place.

As a worker, be careful to keep pace with the communications of reality from God or you will be crushed. If you know too much, more than God has engineered for you to know, you cannot pray, the condition of the people is so crushing that you cannot get through to reality.

Our work lies in coming into definite contact with God about everything, and we shirk it by becoming active workers. We do the things that can be tabulated but we will not intercede. Intercession is the one thing that has no snares, because it keeps our relationship with God completely open.

The thing to watch in intercession is that no soul is patched up, a soul must get through into contact with the life of God. Think of the number of souls God has brought about our path and we have dropped them! When we pray on the ground of Redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.

我留下平安给你们，我将我的平安赐给你们……你们心里不要忧愁……（约十四27）

个人经历若有什么难过的事，我们很容易会责怪神；但出错的实在不是神，而是我们。我们必定有什么执着不肯放手，一旦肯放手，一切就必晴朗如白昼。若我们要同时事奉神，又事奉自己，就必产生困惑。我们必须对神抱完全信赖的态度，这样，过成圣生活就轻而易举了。有难处是因我们侵夺圣灵的主权，欲达成自己的目的。

你什么时候顺服神，他的印证就是平安。那无比的平安，不是天然的，乃是主耶稣的平安。若平安不来，就要等候直至得着，或找出没有平安的因由。若你行事是出于冲动，或英雄气概，主的平安就不会印证；因为其中没有对神的单纯与信心。单纯的灵是从圣灵而生的，不是出于你的决定，每一个决定都带来反作用，以致失掉单纯。

我一不顺服，问题就来了。我若顺服，问题就不会出于我与神之间，而只会挑旺我的心，叫我稀奇神启示的奇妙。神与我之间任何的问题，都是出于顺服。反之，若许多的问题在我顺服神的当儿出现，只会增加我惊喜的欣愉，因为我知道天父是明察的，我将可细察他怎样解决这些问题。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我投向你。我原本是一个无家可归的人，直至你以你平安的稳妥、你慈爱的甜蜜感觉感动我，我的生命才产生改变。

December 14 The Great Life

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: . . Let not your heart be troubled.” John 14:27

Whenever a thing becomes difficult in personal experience, we are in danger of blaming God, but it is we who are in the wrong, not God, there is some perversity somewhere that we will not let go. Immediately we do, everything becomes as clear as daylight. As long as we try to serve two ends, ourselves and God, there is perplexity. The attitude must be one of complete reliance on God. When once we get there, there is nothing easier than living the saintly life; difficulty comes in when we want to usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit for our own ends.

Whenever you obey God, His seal is always that of peace, the witness of an unfathomable peace, which is not natural, but the peace of Jesus. Whenever peace does not come, tarry till it does or find out the reason why it does not. If you are acting on an impulse, or from a sense of the heroic, the peace of Jesus will not witness; there is no simplicity or confidence in God, because the spirit of simplicity is born of the Holy Ghost, not of your decisions. Every decision brings a reaction of simplicity.

My questions come whenever I cease to obey. When I have obeyed God, the problems never come between me and God, they come as probes to keep the mind going on with amazement at the revelation of God. Any problem that comes between God and myself springs out of disobedience; any problem, and there are many, that is alongside me while I obey God, increases my ecstatic delight, because I know that my Father knows, and I am going to watch and see how He unravels this thing.

你当努力，在神面前得蒙喜悦，作无愧的工人，接着正意分解真理的道。（提后二15）

要是你不能在任何题目上表达自己，就当好好努力，直至你能表达出来，否则，有些人会因此一生贫瘠。试把神某些真理对自己再三说出来，力求改进，神会藉你的话叫别人得益。要进入神的压酒池，竭力用各种方式把道理表达，时候到了，那些话就成为别人得力的美酒。若你懒洋洋地说：“我自己不必努力去表达，我可以借用别人的话。”这样，不但自己无用，对别人也无益。试把神的真理说出来，这样你就给神机会，把资讯带给人。

经常保持反诌的习惯，刺激脑袋再三思想那些理所当然的东西。经过苦练，岗位才真正成为我们的。一个作者叫你收益最大，不是因他把你从不知晓的东西告诉你，而是他把你不能表达的东西表达出来。

祈祷◆主啊，我愿称颂和赞美你，然而，当我身体软弱，我感到赞美你是何其困难，但为何必然是这样呢？这意味着惟有当我感到愉快，我才赞美你。但愿我的心能持续不断地赞美你！

December 15 Approved Unto God

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15

If you cannot express yourself on any subject, struggle until you can. If you do not, someone will be the poorer all the days of his life. Struggle to re-express some truth of God to yourself, and God will use that expression to someone else. Go through the winepress of God where the grapes are crushed. You must struggle to get expression experimentally, then there will come a time when that expression will become the very wine of strengthening to someone else; but if you say lazily – “I am not going to struggle to express this thing for myself, I will borrow what I say,” the expression will not only be of no use to you, but of no use to anyone. Try to state to yourself what you feel implicitly to be God's truth, and you give God a chance to pass it on to someone else through you.

Always make a practice of provoking your own mind to think out what it accepts easily. Our position is not ours until we make it ours by suffering. The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance.

所以要拿起神所赐的全副军装……随时多方祷告祈求……（弗六13-18）

你要与拦阻你亲近神的东西摔跤，为别人祷告时也要摔跤；但千万不要在祷告中与神摔跤，那是不合圣经真理的。你若真与神摔跤，势必一生瘸腿。若神给你一些你不想要的东西，就像雅各一样抓住神，与他摔跤，你就迫使神折断你的腿骨。不要做阻挡神路的人，要在神面前与世上的事物摔跤，因为借着他“已经得胜有余”。在神面前摔跤，必在他国度里见功效。若要我为你代祷，而我在基督里并不完全的话，祷告就无功效；但若我在基督里完全，祷告就随时生效。惟有在完全里，祷告才有功效——“所以要拿起神所赐的全副军装......”

总要分辨什么是神完美纯全的旨意，什么是他容许发生的事，后者是神借以完成他在我们身上的计划。我们不能更改神的旨意，但必须在他面前与一切他容许发生在我们身上的事情摔跤。我们对这些事情的反应，能帮助我们看清楚他在我们身上的旨意。“万事都互相效力，叫爱神的人得益处”－－这里指那些忠于神的吩咐和主耶稣恩召人。神容许发生的事情，往往是他用来显露真正属他的儿女的一个考验。我们不卑躬屈就、不加思索地说：“这是神的旨意。”我们不是与神争斗或摔跤，乃是与那些事情摔跤。当心不可在神面前怠惰地闲坐，而是勇敢地光荣而战，你会发现主的能力充满你。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，倘若我有任何刚强的一面，那只是在你里面得着的刚强。今天早上，我因想起这话而满心欢喜－－“你们要靠着主，倚赖他的大能大力作刚强的人。”

December 16 Wrestling Before God

“Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God . . . praying always . . . ” Ephesians 6:13, 18

You have to wrestle against the things that prevent you from getting to God, and you wrestle in prayer for other souls; but never say that you wrestle with God in prayer, it is scripturally untrue. If you do wrestle with God, you will be crippled all the rest of your life. If, when God comes in some way you do not want, you take hold of Him as Jacob did and wrestle with Him, you compel Him to put you out of joint. Don't be a hirpler in God's ways, but be one who wrestles before God with things, becoming more than conqueror through Him. Wrestling before God tells in His Kingdom. If you ask me to pray for you and I am not complete in Christ, I may pray but it avails nothing; but if I am complete in Christ my prayer prevails all the time. Prayer is only effective when there is completeness – “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God.”

Always distinguish between God's order and His permissive will, i.e., His providential purpose towards us. God's order is unchangeable; His permissive will is that with which we must wrestle before Him. It is our reaction to the permissive will of God that enables us to get at His order. “All things work together for good to them that love God” – to those who remain true to God's order, to His calling in Christ Jesus. God's permissive will is the means whereby His sons and daughters are to be manifested. We are not to be like jelly-fish saying, “It's the Lord's will.” We have not to put up a fight before God, not to wrestle with God, but to wrestle before God with things. Beware of squatting lazily before God instead of putting up a glorious fight so that you may lay hold of His strength.

然而属血气的人不领会 神圣灵的事，反倒以为愚拙。（林前二14）

神的福音能叫人产生对福音的需要。保罗说：“如果我们的福音蒙蔽......”是对那些恶人蒙蔽吗？不是的。“就是蒙蔽在灭亡的人身上，此等不信之人，被这世界的神弄瞎了心眼。”大多数人都有自己持守的道德观念，觉得不需要福音。神于是造出这个需要来；他若不彰显自己，根本没有人觉得有此需要。耶稣说：“祈求，就给你们。”但人未祈求，神就不能给；不是他保留不给，但这是他根据救赎所定下的原则。正因我们求，神就作工，为我们创造那些未求之前不存在的东西。救赎的精义，就是不断的创造；救赎既在我们里面创造了神的生命，也创造属于那生命的东西。惟有叫人产生这需要的，才能满足这需要，这就是救赎的意思－－它创造，它也满足。

“人子若从地上被举起来，就必吸引万人来归我。”我们传讲自己的经历，别人虽感兴趣，可是却不唤起他的需要。若耶稣基督被举起来，神的灵便叫人觉得需要基督。在传扬福音的背后，是神不断创造的救赎大工在人心里动工。个人见证绝对不能拯救人，“我对你们说的话，就是灵，就是生命。”

祈祷◆主啊，我何其渴望看见你、听见你、默想你和愈来愈像你！你曾经说过：“又要以耶和华为乐，他就将你心里所求的赐给你。”

December 17 Redemption Creates The Need It Satisfies

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.” 1 Corinthians 2:14

The Gospel of God creates a sense of need of the Gospel. Paul says – “If our gospel be hid, it is hid” – to those who are blackguards? No, “to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.” The majority of people have their morality well within their own grasp, they have no sense of need of the Gospel. It is God Who creates the need of which no human being is conscious until God manifests Himself. Jesus said – “Ask, and it shall be given you,” but God cannot give until a man asks. It is not that He withholds, but that that is the way He has constituted things on the basis of Redemption. By means of our asking, God gets processes into work whereby He creates the thing that is not in existence until we do ask. The inner reality of Redemption is that it creates all the time. As the Redemption creates the life of God in us, so it creates the things belonging to that life. Nothing can satisfy the need but that which created the need. This is the meaning of Redemption – it creates and it satisfies.

“I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” We preach our own experiences and people are interested, but no sense of need is awakened by it. If once Jesus Christ is lifted up, the Spirit of God will create a conscious need of Him. Behind the preaching of the Gospel is the creative Redemption of God at work in the souls of men. It is never personal testimony that saves men. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.”

我们晓得万事都互相效力，叫爱神的人得益处。（罗八28）

只有忠心耿耿的人，才相信神安排环境。我们往往过于随便，不相信自己的境遇是神所安排；口头上虽然说相信，但当事情发生，往往视作人的作为。在任何情况下忠心，是指只有一个忠心的对象，就是我们的主。神若忽然改变某一个环境，我们就发现自己的不忠，因为没有看出这是出于神。我们根本看不出他的用意，而那件事我们的一生中也不会再重演。忠心的考验都是在那刻临到的。我们若学会在苦痛的环境中敬拜他，神愿意的话，可以在两秒钟内把环境扭转。

向耶稣基督效忠，是我们今日抗拒的事。我们可以忠于工作、事奉、或任何事情，但别叫我们效忠耶稣基督。不少信徒对效忠基督感到不耐烦。信主的人把主从宝座上推下来，比世界的人更甚。神成为一部祝福人的机器，耶稣基督成为工人中的工人。重点不是在我们为神工作，而是在我们完全效忠，以致他能透过我作工－－“我寄望于你的，是要你全力事奉，不发怨言，不求解释。”神要用我们，像他用他儿子一样。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你今天的脸光光照我们，使我们都以极大的甜蜜和自由来配合你的计划，并且活泼轻快地与你一起走过。

December 18 The Test Of Loyalty

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” Romans 8:28

It is only the loyal soul who believes that God engineers circumstances. We take such liberty with our circumstances, we do not believe God engineers them, although we say we do; we treat the things that happen as if they were engineered by men. To be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, and that is to our Lord. Suddenly God breaks up a particular set of circumstances, and the realization comes that we have been disloyal to Him by not recognizing that He had ordered them; we never saw what He was after, and that particular thing will never be repeated all the days of our life. The test of loyalty always comes just there. If we learn to worship God in the trying circumstances, He will alter them in two seconds when He chooses.

Loyalty to Jesus Christ is the thing that we “stick at” to-day. We will be loyal to work, to service, to anything, but do not ask us to be loyal to Jesus Christ. Many Christians are intensely impatient of talking about loyalty to Jesus. Our Lord is dethroned more emphatically by Christian workers than by the world. God is made a machine for blessing men, and Jesus Christ is made a Worker among workers.

The idea is not that we do work for God, but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us – “I reckon on you for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on Mine.” God wants to use us as He used His own Son.

我来，并不是叫地上太平，乃是叫地上动刀兵。（太十34）

若有人的遭遇令你觉得神是冷酷无情的，不要对这人表示同情。神比想像中更柔和，他有时让我们经历艰难，是为我们的好处。人若不能通达主前，是由于他藏着不肯放下的东西－－“我承认有错，但我不打算放弃它。”对这样的人是不需要同情的：即使他们憎恶敌挡我们的信息，也要直斥其非。人都爱神的祝福，可是却不肯接受那些命中要害的东西。

神若是使用你作他的仆人，你的信息就该不通融迁就，直指问题根源，否则人就得不着医治。把信息清楚传讲，使人无可避讳。先从人的本相着手，直到他们发现自己的缺欠，然后举出主耶稣的榜样，“我们永远也不能像耶稣一样！”你就立即说：“耶稣基督说你必须如此。”“我们怎能如此？”“你不能，除非你有了更新的圣灵。”（路十一13）

先要唤起人的需要，你的信息才生果效。世上千万人心中没有神，生活依然快活。我在耶稣未来以先，原是快活的，道德也不差，他来到底做什么？原来那种快乐平安是建筑在错误的水平上；耶稣基督来，就是要用刀剑刺透一切不是建基于与他个人关系的平安。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，今天我来到你的面前，愿你的美善、恩典和充满安慰的平安临到我。愿没有任何风暴、不适或焦虑，触动你在我生命中和在此处的平安。

December 19 What To Concentrate On

“I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Matthew 10:34

Never be sympathetic with the soul whose case makes you come to the conclusion that God is hard. God is more tender than we can conceive, and every now and again He gives us the chance of being the rugged one that He may be the tender One. If a man cannot get through to God it is because there is a secret thing he does not intend to give up – I will admit I have done wrong, but I no more intend to give up that thing than fly. It is impossible to deal sympathetically with a case like that: we have to get right deep down to the root until there is antagonism and resentment against the message. People want the blessing of God, but they will not stand the thing that goes straight to the quick.

If God has had His way with you, your message as His servant is merciless insistence on the one line, cut down to the very root, otherwise there will be no healing. Drive home the message until there is no possible refuge from its application. Begin to get at people where they are until you get them to realize what they lack, and then erect the standard of Jesus Christ for their lives – “We never can be that.” Then drive it home – “Jesus Christ says you must.” “But how can we be?” “You cannot, unless you have a new Spirit.” (Luke 11:13.)

There must be a sense of need before your message is of any use. Thousands of people are happy without God in this world. If I was happy and moral till Jesus came, why did He come? Because that kind of happiness and peace is on a wrong level; Jesus Christ came to send a sword through every peace that is not based on a personal relationship to Himself.

我若从地上被举起来，就要吸引万人来归我。（约十二32）

很少人真正明白主耶稣受死的原因。若世人需要的只是同情，那么耶稣的十字架不过是场闹剧，根本用不着。世界所需要的，不是一点点爱，乃是开刀动手术。

当你面对一个在灵性上遇到困难的人，要提醒自己那在十字架上的耶稣基督。若那人可以从别的途径到神那里，耶稣基督的十字架就是多余。你若以为能用自己的同情心或体谅去帮助人，你就是主的叛徒。你必须与神保持正确的关系，依他的方法为他倾倒，而不是忽略了神、依人的方法去倾倒，但今日最响的调子，却是温和派的宗教。

有一件事不能不做的，就是每时每刻高举被钉的主耶稣。任何教义不植根于耶稣的十字架的，必领人入歧途。工人若深信耶稣基督，紧抓他救赎的真实，和他说话的人必然被吸引。神的工人是否有用，全赖他与耶稣基督的单纯关系。而这种关系是长存的，也是日益加深的。

新约的工人蒙召，是要揭发罪恶并指出耶稣是救主，因此他不能诗情画意，乃是要严谨开刀。我们被差是要高举主耶稣，不是要发表美妙的论说。我们对人的察验必须深入，像神察验我们一样；对圣经要敏锐，把真理直截阐明，勇敢地应用出来。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，我察觉到我最近的内心是何其缺少将我对耶稣的信心实践出来，那些隐藏的意欲似乎经常出没。愿你将基督里的单纯引进我的生命，又使我对事情有更深入的看法－－唯一关注的是凡事获得你的认可。

December 20 The Right Lines Of Work

“I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.” John 12:32

Very few of us have any understanding of the reason why Jesus Christ died. If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is a farce, there was no need for it. What the world needs is not “a little bit of love,” but a surgical operation.

When you are face to face with a soul in difficulty spiritually, remind yourself of Jesus Christ on the Cross. If that soul can get to God on any other line, then the Cross of Jesus Christ is unnecessary. If you can help others by your sympathy or understanding, you are a traitor to Jesus Christ. You have to keep your soul rightly related to God and pour out for others on His line, not pour out on the human line and ignore God. The great note to-day is amiable religiosity.

The one thing we have to do is to exhibit Jesus Christ crucified, to lift Him up all the time. Every doctrine that is not imbedded in the Cross of Jesus will lead astray. If the worker himself believes in Jesus Christ and is banking on the Reality of Redemption, the people he talks to must be concerned. The thing that remains and deepens is the worker's simple relationship to Jesus Christ; his usefulness to God depends on that and that alone.

The calling of a New Testament worker is to uncover sin and to reveal Jesus Christ as Saviour, consequently he cannot be poetical, he must be sternly surgical. We are sent by God to lift up Jesus Christ, not to give wonderfully beautiful discourses. We have to probe straight down as deeply as God has probed us, to be keen in sensing the Scriptures which bring the truth straight home and to apply them fearlessly.

我们所领受的……乃是从 神来的灵，叫我们能知道 神开恩赐给我们的事。（林前二12）

救赎本身是事实，而不是我对救恩的经历；不过若不是用我能体会的语言传递出来，救恩对我就毫无意义。重生之后，神的灵就立即把我从自己和自己的经历中领出来，使我与耶稣基督连合。若我仍留在自己的经历中，那些经历必然不是从救恩而来。那经历若是由救恩产生的，最好的明证是我脱离自己，不再以自己的经历作为事实的基础，而只专注于带来这些经历的实体。我的经历若不叫我对准源头－－主耶稣，就一文不值。

你若堵住圣灵，要为自己制造一些主观的经历，你会发觉他会爆溢而出，把你带回历史的基督面前。经历若不植根于神，也不叫你对神产生信心，就不当培育。若然，不管你所见的异象是什么，你的经历与基督敌对的，主耶稣是你经历中的主？还是你要经历作他的主？有没有经历是比主更宝贵的？他要作你的主，你对那些不以他为主的经历不应重视。你会来到一个地步，神叫你对自己的经历不耐烦－－“不管我的经历是什么，我只求持定神。”你若有很多机会谈及自己的经历，就得对自己无情一点。肯定自信的信心，不是信心；对神有把握的信心，才是唯一的信心。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求你除去这思想上的枷锁，为我带来平安、纯洁和能力。愿今天你以温柔、怜悯和恩典来充满我。

December 21 Experience Or Revelation

“We have received . . . the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:12

Reality is Redemption, not my experience of Redemption; but Redemption has no meaning for me until it speaks the language of my conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me right out of myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am left with my experiences, my experiences have not been produced by Redemption. The proof that they are produced by Redemption is that I am led out of myself all the time, I no longer pay any attention to my experiences as the ground of Reality, but only to the Reality which produced the experiences. My experiences are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source, Jesus Christ.

If you try to dam up the Holy Spirit in you to produce subjective experiences, you will find that He will burst all bounds and take you back again to the historic Christ. Never nourish an experience which has not God as its Source and faith in God as its result. If you do, your experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions you may have had. Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you try to lord it over Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? He must be Lord over you, and you must not pay attention to any experience over which He is not Lord. There comes a time when God will make you impatient with your own experience – I do not care what I experience; I am sure of Him.

Be ruthless with yourself if you are given to talking about the experiences you have had. Faith that is sure of itself is not faith; faith that is sure of God is the only faith there is.

若不是差我的父吸引人，就没有能到我这里来的。（约六44）

神吸引我的时候，就是要运用意志的时候－－我对神赐的启示有反应吗？我肯到他那里去吗？把属灵的事拿来议论，是不合体统的；神说话的时候，不要人讨论。信心不是一项智力上的举动，乃是一种道德的反应，特意要把自己投上去。我愿否绝无保留地把自己投上，照神所说的去做？若肯，就会发现自己扎根于安稳如神宝座的实体上。

传福音的时候，记得要提出意志的问题。信仰必须出于意志。意志必须顺服，而不是屈服在说服力之下，乃是立志全部投向神和他所说的话，直至不再把信心建在自己所作的事上，而是惟独信神。其中的拦阻在于我不肯信神，只信自己头脑的理解。以感觉上来说，我必须不顾一切的投注，必须凭意志相信；这样，我必须尽很大的努力，把以往对事物的看法丢弃，只对准神自己，否则便无法做到。

人有一种向自己以外去寻索的本能。是神先吸引我，我与他的首要关系，是个人的，不是理智上的。我因着神的吸引，和我决意的相信，便进入与神的关系中，然后，开始在理智上体会并明白这相交的奇妙。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你大能的同在，今天如帐棚般四面环绕我，愿你的荣耀就在其中。

December 22 The Drawing Of The Father

“No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him.” John 6:44

When God draws me, the issue of my will comes in at once – will I react on the revelation which God gives – will I come to Him? Discussion on spiritual matters is an impertinence. Never discuss with anyone when God speaks. Belief is not an intellectual act; belief is a moral act whereby I deliberately commit myself. Will I dump myself down absolutely on God and transact on what He says? If I will, I shall find I am based on Reality that is as sure as God's throne.

In preaching the gospel, always push an issue of will. Belief must be the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to persuasive power, a deliberate launching forth on God and on what He says until I am no longer confident in what I have done, I am confident only in God. The hindrance is that I will not trust God, but only my mental understanding. As far as feelings go, I must stake all blindly. I must will to believe, and this can never be done without a violent effort on my part to disassociate myself from my old ways of looking at things, and by putting myself right over on to Him.

Every man is made to reach out beyond his grasp. It is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the first place is a personal one, not an intellectual one. I am introduced into the relationship by the miracle of God and my own will to believe, then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transaction.

但我断不以别的夸口，只夸我们主耶稣基督的十字架。（加六14）

耶稣基督的福音总牵涉到意志的问题。我接受神在基督十字架上对罪的宣判吗？我对耶稣的死有丝毫兴趣吗？我愿意与他的死连合，对罪、对世界、对自己的兴趣完全死去，以致除了他，将一切看为有损吗？作门徒的最大权利，就是在十字架上签上名字，表示对罪死了。你要单独来到耶稣面前，对他说你不愿意罪从你身上除净，或对他说你愿意不计代价，与他的死连合。只要你凭信与十架的主相遇，一种超然死的体验随即而生，你会有超乎知识的知识，告诉你“旧人”已经与基督同钉。旧人与基督同钉的明证，就是神在你里面的生命，叫你顺服主的声音，如今是出奇的轻省容易。

有时候，主会让我们看看没有了他我们会怎样，要证明他说：“离了我，你们就不能作什么。”因此，基督教的基石是个人对主耶稣全心全意的爱慕效忠。我们往往以为初信主进入天国时那种惊喜之情，就是神的目的；其实他给我们这经历，目的是要我们体会什么是与主耶稣合一。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着你自己，和靠着你那无所不能的恩典，我学习进入你的同在中；我赞美你。愿你的恩典、亮光和智慧触摸我的身体和心灵；愿你的触摸带来光明和生气。

December 23 How Can I Personally Partake In The Atonement?

“But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” Galatians 6:14

The Gospel of Jesus Christ always forces an issue of will. Do I accept God's verdict on sin in the Cross of Christ? Have I the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death, to be killed right out to all interest in sin, in worldliness, in self – to be so identified with Jesus that I am spoilt for every thing else but Him? The great privilege of discipleship is that I can sign on under His Cross, and that means death to sin. Get alone with Jesus and either tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you; or else tell Him that at all costs you want to be identified with His death. Immediately you transact in confident faith in what Our Lord did on the Cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place, and you will know with a knowledge that passeth knowledge that your “old man” is crucified with Christ. The proof that your old man is crucified with Christ is the amazing ease with which the life of God in you enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.

Every now and again, Our Lord lets us see what we would be like if it were not for Himself; it is a justification of what He said – “Without Me ye can do nothing.” That is why the bedrock of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the ecstasy of our first introduction into the Kingdom for the purpose of God in getting us there; His purpose in getting us there is that we may realize all that identification with Jesus Christ means.

你们的生命与基督一同藏在 神里面。（西三3）

我与基督一同藏在神里面的生命有大能安稳，这事实是神的灵见证的，并且也不断见诸新约各书信中。我往往视成圣生活为最不稳定的东西，其实这是最有保障的，因为全能的神在里面、在后面支持着。最不稳固的生活，是不靠神而活。我们若已重生，只要肯听神的警告，行在光中，最容易的是与神有正确的关系，而最难的是走差路。

有时想脱离罪恶，被圣灵充满，行在光明中，好像高山的顶峰崇高峻妙，我们就会说：“可惜，我怎么也攀不上去！”但一旦靠神恩典上去了，却发现这原来不是一个山顶，而是一片高原，有足够的地方生长。“你使我的道路宽广。”

你若真看见耶稣，我保证你不会对他疑惑。当他说“你心里不要忧愁”，你若真看见他，必然不会忧愁，因为他在这里，根本不用疑惑。每次你单独与他相交，他的话都活现出来。“我将我的平安赐给你们。”这平安要从头顶渗透至脚踵，是无可抗拒的可靠。“你们的生命与基督一同藏在神里面”，主无比的平安就临到你。

祈祷◆“与基督一同藏在神里面”的生命，是何等喜乐的生命！可是，我的神，尽管有着你一切的恩典和忍耐，我仍然不敢有一刻想到我离开这生命有多远。然而，我是你所造的，我要感谢你。

December 24 The Hidden Life

“Your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3

The Spirit of God witnesses to the simple almighty security of the life hid with Christ in God and this is continually brought out in the Epistles. We talk as if it were the most precarious thing to live the sanctified life; it is the most secure thing, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most precarious thing is to try and live without God. If we are born again it is the easiest thing to live in right relationship to God and the most difficult thing to go wrong, if only we will heed God's warnings and keep in the light.

When we think of being delivered from sin, of being filled with the Spirit, and of walking in the light, we picture the peak of a great mountain, very high and wonderful, and we say – “Oh, but I could never live up there!” But when we do get there by God's grace, we find it is not a mountain peak, but a plateau where there is ample room to live and to grow. “Thou hast enlarged my steps under me.”

When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. When He says – “Let not your heart be troubled,” if you see Him I defy you to trouble your mind, it is a moral impossibility to doubt when He is there. Every time you get into personal contact with Jesus, His words are real. “My peace I give unto you,” it is a peace all over from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, an irrepressible confidence. “Your life is hid with Christ in God,” and the imperturbable peace of Jesus Christ is imparted to you.

必有童女怀孕生子，给他起名叫以马内利。就是 神与我们同在的意思。（赛七14）

他在历史中诞生。“因此所要生的圣者，必称为神的儿子。”（路一35）耶稣基督是降生到世界，不是从这世界而出。他不是从历史演进而生，乃是从历史以外而来。耶稣基督不是人类最好的一个；他是完全无法算在人类之内的一位。他不是人变作神，乃是神成了肉身，成了人的形状，是从外而来的。他的生命最崇高最圣洁，却从最卑微的门进来。主的诞生，是降临人间。

他在我里面诞生。“我为你们再受生产之苦，直等到基督成形在你们心里。”(加四19) 主是从外面进到人类历史，同样也从外面进到我里面。我有没有让自己的生命，成为神儿子的伯利恒？我必须从神而生，这与天然的生产完全不同，否则便不能进入神的国度里。“你们必须重生”，这不是命令，而是一项基本的事实。新生的本质，就是我完全降服于神，以致基督成形在我里面，他的本性开始透过我工作。

神在肉身显现－－这是救恩为你我所成就的事实。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，当我们在今早思想以赛亚书第五十三章，愿祢的荣耀将它显明；愿祢使我们变得柔和与温顺，被祢所激励和振奋，并且将我们提升至这种荣耀的事奉，以致我们可以捕捉祢的形象。

December 25 His Birth And Our New Birth

“Behold, a virgin shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” Isaiah 7:14 (R.V.)

His Birth in History. “Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35.) Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not evolve out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being, He is a Being Who cannot be accounted for by the human race at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate, God coming into human flesh, coming into it from outside. His life is the Highest and the Holiest entering in at the Lowliest door. Our Lord's birth was an advent.

His Birth in Me. “Of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” (Gal. 4:19.) Just as Our Lord came into human history from outside, so He must come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter into the realm of the Kingdom of God unless I am born from above by a birth totally unlike natural birth. “Ye must be born again.” This is not a command, it is a foundation fact. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me.

God manifest in the flesh – that is what is made profoundly possible for you and me by the Redemption.

我们若在光明中行，如同神在光明中……他儿子耶稣的血也洗净我们一切的罪。（约壹一7）

自觉脱离罪，得享自由；并不等于已蒙救赎，从罪中得释放。若混淆二者，那是严重的错误。人必须重生，才知何为罪；而罪就是耶稣在十字架上所面对的。我从罪中得释放的证据，就是认识我里头的罪。主耶稣的救恩使人有份于他绝对的完全，叫人知道罪是什么。

圣灵使救恩在我们里面生效，在非意识的领域，也在意识可及的领域；只有当我们体会圣灵在我们里面那无可比拟的能力，我们才明白约翰一书一章7节的意思：“耶稣的血也洗净我们一切的罪。”这不单指人意识到的罪，更是指因内住的圣灵而对罪有深切的认识。

我若像神一样行在光中——不是自己良心的光，而是神的光——没有任何遮掩，就必稀奇地领悟耶稣的血洗净我一切的罪，以致神无法找出可指摘的。在我的意识中，他叫我对罪有一种敏锐而强烈的知觉。神的爱又在我里面，叫我像圣灵恨罪一样，恨恶一切与神圣洁相违的东西。行在光中的意思，就是每一件黑暗的事物，都驱策我更接近光的中枢。

祈祷◆洁净我，噢，主啊，使我脱去灵里一切的罪污，愿你那充满光辉的美善，今天临到我身上。

December 26 Placed In The Light

“If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7

To mistake conscious freedom from sin for deliverance from sin by the Atonement is a great error. No man knows what sin is until he is born again. Sin is what Jesus Christ faced on Calvary. The evidence that I am delivered from sin is that I know the real nature of sin in me. It takes the last reach of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, that is, the impartation of His absolute perfection, to make a man know what sin is.

The Holy Spirit applies the Atonement to us in the unconscious realm as well as in the realm of which we are conscious, and it is only when we get a grasp of the unrivalled power of the Spirit in us that we understand the meaning of 1 John 1:7, “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.” This does not refer to conscious sin only, but to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which only the Holy Ghost in me realizes.

If I walk in the light as God is in the light, not in the light of my conscience, but in the light of God – if I walk there, with nothing folded up, then there comes the amazing revelation, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses me from all sin so that God Almighty can see nothing to censure in me. In my consciousness it works with a keen poignant knowledge of what sin is. The love of God at work in me makes me hate with the hatred of the Holy Ghost all that is not in keeping with God's holiness. To walk in the light means that everything that is of the darkness drives me closer into the centre of the light.

耶和华说：“以色列啊，你若回来归向我……”（耶四1）

争战的胜败决定于在神面前意志的隐秘处，而不是外在的世界。神的灵提醒我，催促我独自见神，在他面前作战。若不这样行，我每次必败。争战是一分钟还是一年，是在于我的决定，而不是神；但必须在神面前自己摔跤，断然弃绝主权。没有什么能打倒一个在神面前争战胜利的人。

我若说：“还是等到事情来到，再试试神吧！”我必发觉自己办不到。我要在神面前，独自在心灵的隐秘处，没有他人骚扰的地方，好好解决；然后放胆地出去，因为知道仗已经打赢了。若在那里打败，灾祸难处必然不绝临到，就如神的命令一样坚定。仗打不赢的道理，是我想先从外在世界去打；其实应该独自见神，在那里先打胜了，才可一次性解决问题。

对待其他人也是如此，要把他们推到意志的边缘－－完全归服的起点。有时候，神带我们来到一个顶点，就是生命的大分水线。从那一点，我们或是逐渐变得怠惰、毫不起劲地过着一种无大用处的信徒生活；或是为神的至高荣耀燃烧自己——竭诚为主。

祈祷◆噢，我的神，请你现在感动我。在其中一次改变生命的触动中，你确实从所有事物中清楚而具体地启示你自己；在那些灿烂的时刻中，我看见你、敬拜你，并赞叹你。

December 27 Where The Battle's Lost And Won

“If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord. . . .” Jeremiah 4:1

The battle is lost or won in the secret places of the will before God, never first in the external world. The Spirit of God apprehends me and I am obliged to get alone with God and fight the battle out before Him. Until this is done, I lose every time. The battle may take one minute or a year, that will depend on me, not on God; but it must be wrestled out alone before God, and I must resolutely go through the hell of a renunciation before God. Nothing has any power over the man who has fought out the battle before God and won there.

If I say, “I will wait till I get into the circumstances and then put God to the test,” I shall find I cannot. I must get the thing settled between my self and God in the secret places of my soul where no stranger intermeddles, and then I can go forth with the certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity and disaster and upset are as sure as God's decree. The reason the battle is not won is because I try to win it in the external world first. Get alone with God, fight it out before Him, settle the matter there once and for all.

In dealing with other people, the line to take is to push them to an issue of will. That is the way abandonment begins. Every now and again, not often, but sometimes, God brings us to a point of climax. That is the Great Divide in the life; from that point we either go towards a more and more dilatory and useless type of Christian life, or we become more and more ablaze for the glory of God – My Utmost for His Highest.

你们若不回转，变成小孩子的样式……（太十八3）

这话不但在我们初信之时十分真确，就是在我们生命的每一天，也要回转，向神作小孩子。我们若信赖自己的头脑过于神，他就要我们负责后果。我们的身体既在神安排下进入新的境况，就要让天然生命顺服圣灵的指挥。一次成功，并不等于第二次也可以成功。肉体生命与属灵生命的关系，是不断的回转，这是我们本性所不愿的。不管在什么环境下，神的灵始终不变，神的救恩也不变，但我们要“穿上新人”。我们每次不肯回转，神都要我们自己负责，因为我们的拒绝，是出于故意的顽梗。我们不要被肉体的生命管辖，必须让神掌管。

属灵生命的阻碍，是不肯经常回转悔改，我们用许多顽梗的藉口，在神的宝座前自傲地说：“我不肯。”我们尊崇独立固执，给它们错误的称号。神看作顽梗的软弱，我们却称之为力量。我们生命中还有许多地方未受管治的，这只有靠经常回转才可以达成。逐渐地，我们必然被圣灵收复所有失地。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿我能被你带进你与我同在的境地，从你的立场观看事情。今天早上，我要向你的百姓说话，噢，主啊，以你恩慈的灵重新膏立我。

December 28 Continuous Conversion

“Except ye be converted, and become as little children. . . .” Matthew 18:3

These words of Our Lord are true of our initial conversion, but we have to be continuously converted all the days of our lives, continually to turn to God as children. If we trust to our wits instead of to God, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. Immediately our bodies are brought into new conditions by the providence of God, we have to see that our natural life obeys the dictates of the Spirit of God. Because we have done it once is no proof that we shall do it again. The relation of the natural to the spiritual is one of continuous conversion, and it is the one thing we object to. In every setting in which we are put, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered, but we have to “put on the new man.” God holds us responsible every time we refuse to convert ourselves, our reason for refusing is wilful obstinacy. Our natural life must not rule, God must rule in us.

The hindrance in our spiritual life is that we will not be continually converted, there are wadges of obstinacy where our pride spits at the throne of God and says – I won't. We deify independence and wilfulness and call them by the wrong name. What God looks on as obstinate weakness, we call strength. There are whole tracts of our lives which have not yet been brought into subjection, and it can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.

从此他门徒中多有退去的，不再和他同行。（约六66）

神藉圣灵，透过他的话语显示他的心意，使你心灵兴奋万分；但你若不行在这异象的光中，就沉沦在奴隶的状态中，受制于一种不属于主的观点。你若心里不服从天上来的异象，就必服役于主耶稣以外的观点。不要指着别人说：“看哪，他持那些观点，仍然顺利亨通，我为什么不可以？”你要行在异象的光中，不要与人比较，或判断别人，那是他与神之间的事。你若发现自己所喜悦的观点，与天上来的异象相违，你为此争辩，渐渐里面就会产生一种拥有感和个人权利感，这些都是主耶稣所弃绝的。他反对这些，因为这一切是叫人离开神的根源。“人的生命不在乎家道丰富。”我们不体会这一点，是因为我们漠视主基本的教训。

我们很容易回想过往美妙的经历。可是，神的光若向你显示一个标准，而你未能达到或不想达到，那你就开始退后了，因为这表示你的良心对真理并未作出回应。真理一旦启明，人便再也无法依然故我。那一刻就决定，你是向前做主的真门徒，还是退后做逃兵。

祈祷◆主啊，愿我们四周的每一寸空间，今天都被你所充满。愿你引导的手，适当而奇妙地掌管一切；愿你将我们举起，进入你奇妙的计划中，并且使我们不至冲动鲁莽。

December 29 Deserter Or Disciple?

“From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.” John 6:66

When God gives a vision by His Spirit through His word of what He wants, and your mind and soul thrill to it, if you do not walk in the light of that vision, you will sink into servitude to a point of view which Our Lord never had. Disobedience in mind to the heavenly vision will make you a slave to points of view that are alien to Jesus Christ. Do not look at someone else and say – Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why cannot I? You have to walk in the light of the vision that has been given to you and not compare yourself with others or judge them, that is between them and God. When you find that a point of view in which you have been delighting clashes with the heavenly vision and you debate, certain things will begin to develop in you – a sense of property and a sense of personal right, things of which Jesus Christ made nothing. He was always against these things as being the root of everything alien to Himself. “A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth.” If we do not recognize this, it is because we are ignoring the undercurrent of Our Lord's teaching.

We are apt to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we have had. If there is one standard in the New Testament revealed by the light of God and you do not come up to it, and do not feel inclined to come up to it, that is the beginning of backsliding, because it means your conscience does not answer to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you for going on as a more true disciple of Jesus Christ or for going back as a deserter.

我的泉源都在你里面。（诗八十七7）

我们的主从不修补天然美德，他乃是从里面重新再造。“穿上新人”，意思是你要给肉体的生命穿上与新生命相配的衣服。神种在我们里头的生命，会萌发本身的美德，不是亚当的，乃是主耶稣的。你成圣以后，会叫你对天然美德，并个人一切力量的信心枯萎，直至你学会怎样从主耶稣复活的泉源中支取生命。你若正经历那干涸的阶段，就得感谢神。

神在我们里面作工的征象，就是败坏我们对天然德行的信念，因为那些本不是神应许的，不过是他初造人时所剩余的品质。我们总是抓住天然品德，而神却不住要我接驳到主耶稣的生命去，他的美德是无法用天然德行来比较的。最可悲的是事奉神的人，一味仗赖从遗传而得的品质，这些并不是神恩典所赐下的。神不会建立并改变天然的德行，因为天然德行不能达到耶稣万分之一的心意。任何天然的爱、忍耐、清洁，都不可能达到他的要求。只有把肉体生命的每一部分配合神放在我们里头的生命，他才能透过我们彰显主耶稣的美德。而我们所有的一切美德也只是他的。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，你是永远的活井，我所有清新的泉源都在你里面。我来到你面前；愿你大能的生命在我里面涌现，真正地流入我的身体和心灵中。

December 30 “And Every Virtue We Possess”

“All my fresh springs shall be in Thee.” Psalm 87:7 (P.B.V.)

Our Lord never patches up our natural virtues, He re-makes the whole man on the inside. “Put on the new man,” i.e., see that your natural human life puts on the garb that is in keeping with the new life. The life God plants in us develops its own virtues, not the virtues of Adam but of Jesus Christ. Watch how God will wither up your confidence in natural virtues after sanctification, and in any power you have, until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through a drying-up experience!

The sign that God is at work in us is that He corrupts confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but remnants of what God created man to be. We will cling to the natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us into contact with the life of Jesus Christ which can never be described in terms of the natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people in the service of God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them, depending on what they have by the accident of heredity. God does not build up our natural virtues and transfigure them, because our natural virtues can never come anywhere near what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every bit of our bodily life into harmony with the new life which God has put in us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.

“And every virtue we possess
Is His alone.”

以色列的 神必作你们的后盾。（赛五十二12）

脱离昨天的保证。“神需要用过去的事。”年终的时候，我们会期待地指望神带领将来，但回想过去，也会带来焦虑。今天对神恩典的享受，很容易受过去的罪与错失影响。可是神是管理昨天的神，他容许过去的回忆存留，为的是将来的属灵培育。神有时用过去提醒我们，免得我们停在现今肤浅的满足里。

昨天的保证。“因为耶和华必在你们前头行。”这是满有恩典的启示，神在我们失败的地方守卫，留意不让我们重蹈覆辙。若他不作后盾，我们势必再犯。神的手伸到昨天去，为我们的良心清除存货。

今天的保证。“你们出来必不至急忙。”在进入新一年之际，让我们不要急躁鲁莽、兴奋忘旧，也不要轻率冲动，只要从忍耐中得力，知道以色列的神必在前头行。昨天无可挽回，错过的机会永难再得，但神可以把这摧毁性的焦虑，变成建设性的心思，作将来之用。让过去睡吧，但要睡在主耶稣的怀里。

把一去不复返的过去放在他手中，然后与他一同踏进必要来到的将来。

祈祷◆主耶稣啊，“父一切的丰盛，都在你里面居住”；“万物都交在你的手里”；“天上地下所有的权柄都赐给你了”－－噢，我天上的父神，愿你按照你在基督耶稣荣耀里的丰盛，满足我一切的需要。

December 31 Yesterday

“The God of Israel will be your rereward.” Isaiah 52:12

Security from Yesterday. “God requireth that which is past.” At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise from remembering the yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God's grace is apt to be checked by the memory of yesterday's sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present.

Security for Tomorrow. “For the Lord will go before you.” This is a gracious revelation, that God will garrison where we have failed to. He will watch lest things trip us up again into like failure, as they assuredly would do if He were not our rereward. God's hand reaches back to the past and makes a clearing-house for conscience.

Security for Today. “For ye shall not go out with haste.” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the flight of impulsive thoughtlessness, but with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us; it is true that we have lost opportunities which will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ.

Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him.