經文:「你離開這裡...藏在...基立溪旁」(王上17:3) 神的僕人應該知道隱藏的生活的寶貴。我們不必驚奇,如果父神對我們說:「孩子,你已經有了足夠的忙碌、名譽、刺激了;你離開這裡,藏在溪水旁,藏在病室裡,藏在喪失中,藏在群眾散場的荒僻之處。」 我們是否可以回答說:「父神阿,祢的旨意就是我的,我現在逃到祢這裡,求祢把我藏在祢帳幕的隱密處,祢翅膀的覆庇下」? 每一位屬靈人如果想得著能力,必須到隱藏的基立去獲得。若非離開人群,離開自己,到一處深谷中去吸取,屬靈的能力是不可能得到的。 安得烈主教 Bishop Andrew 有他的基立,他每天花五小時在那裡專心禱告;韋爾息約翰 John Welsh 也有他的基立,如果那一天他沒有八個小時在密室中與神交通,他會認為這一天太浪費了;勃蘭納大衛 David Brainerd 的基立在北美洲的森林裡;伊文思 Christmas Evans 的基立在韋爾斯 Wales 山谷中。 讓我們在聖經中回顧:拔摩海島、羅馬監獄、亞拉伯曠野、巴勒斯坦 Palestine 山谷,都是當初聖徒永遠值得記憶的基立。 主的基立在拿撒勒,在猶大地的曠野、在伯大尼的橄欖樹下、在格拉森的荒地中。同樣,我們都需要有自己的基立,因為在此我們可以;得到寶座前的安息,嘗到隱藏生活的甘甜,吸取耶穌基督的能力。--梅爾 F.B.Meyer 新譯|荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "Hide thyself by the brook Cherith" (1 Kings 17:3). God's servants must be taught the value of the hidden life. The man who is to take a high place before his fellows must take a low place before his God. We must not be surprised if sometimes our Father says: "There, child, thou hast had enough of this hurry, and publicity, and excitement; get thee hence, and hide thyself b the brook--hide thyself in the Cherith of the sick chamber, or in the Cherith of bereavement, or in some solitude from which the crowds have ebbed away." Happy is he who can reply, "This Thy will is also mine; I flee unto Thee to hide me. Hide me in the secret of Thy tabernacle, and beneath the covert of Thy wings!" Every saintly soul that would wield great power with men must win it in some hidden Cherith. The acquisition of spiritual power is impossible, unless we can hide ourselves from men and from ourselves in some deep gorge where we may absorb the power of the eternal God; as vegetation through long ages absorbed these qualities of sunshine, which it now gives back through burning coal. Bishop Andrews had his Cherith, in which he spent five hours every day in prayer and devotion. John Welsh had it--who thought the day ill spent which did not witness eight or ten hours of closet communion. David Brainerd had it in the woods of North America. Christmas Evans had it in his long and lonely journeys amid the hills of Wales. Or, passing back to the blessed age from which we date the centuries: Patmos, the seclusion of the Roman prisons, the Arabian desert, the hills and vales of Palestine, are forever memorable as the Cheriths of those who have made our modern world. Our Lord found His Cherith at Nazareth, and in the wilderness of Judea; amid the olives of Bethany, and the solitude of Gadara. None of us, therefore, can dispense with some Cherith where the sounds of human voices are exchanged for the waters of quietness which are fed from the throne; and where we may taste the sweets and imbibe the power of a life hidden with Christ.--Elijah, by Meyer. | Mrs. Charles Cowman
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