| The Christian Life | January 1942 |
What The Lord Requires
“Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, out to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”—Micah 6:6-8
THERE is no more important consideration in the Christian life than that of knowing the Heavenly Father’s will, and doing it. While the details of the divine will may vary in their application to the individual followers of the Master, yet the basic principles of what God requires of His people are the same for all, and have remained the same throughout the ages. These basic principles are set forth in our text as justice, mercy (Hebrew, “loving kindness”) and humility before God. These fundamental principles of true righteousness were required of God’s servants prior to Jesus’ first advent; they are required of the followers of the Master now, and they will be required of those who travel over the highway of holiness in the Millennial age.
The tendency of the fallen flesh is to lose sight of these important fundamentals, and to seek ways and means of pleasing God that are less exacting and more pleasing to the flesh. This was true in the days of the prophet, when our text was first written, and it is still true today. When we set out to find an easier way to serve God, it is usually a case of seizing upon some detail of the divine will and magnifying its importance to the exclusion of other things.
Some of the results of this fallen tendency of the flesh are alluded to in our text! “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams?” the prophet inquires, “or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?” Under the arrangements of the Jewish Law, tabernacle services, etc., the Lord was pleased for His people, under certain circumstances, to offer rams in sacrifice to Him, and also to use oil in connection with their services and sacrifices. These things, indeed, had been commanded by God, and it would not have been possible to ignore them and yet be wholly pleasing to Him. But rams and oil were not the only things that entered into God’s will for the Jewish nation, and even though one should bring a thousand rams, and ten thousands of rivers of oil it would not give him license to ignore the remainder of what the Lord required.
What was true of the Lord’s people in old Testament times, is also more or less true of us today—we still need to guard against the tendency of coming to the Lord with “thousands of rams,” or with “ten thousands of rivers of oil.” The minutia of the divine will for the followers of the Master include many and various details. God wants us to “add to our faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity [love].” (II Pet. 1:5-7) He wants us to “pray without ceasing.” (I Thess. 5:17) He wants us “to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (I John 3:16) He wants us to “preach the Word.” and to “be instant in season, out of season.” (II Tim. 4:2) God also wants us to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” (Jude 3) He wants us to work out our own salvation. (Phil. 2:12) He wants us to meet together, and to elect elders and deacons in our ecclesias.
These are but a few of the details involved in doing God’s will today. In the doing of them—all of them—as best we can, and with a sincere desire to please God, the result in our lives should be an enlarged appreciation of the necessity of justice as a basic principle of our characters, a greater filling with the spirit of love, and an increasing humility in our walk with God. These great fundamentals are the objectives for which we should strive, and in striving for them we should remember that all the details of God’s will constitute the divine course of procedure whereby that objective may be attained.
THE GRACES OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER
The Apostle Peter’s outline of the divine will for Christians is quite comprehensive. (II Peter 1:4-11) He concludes by saying, “If ye do these things, ye shall never fall.” It should be noted that “these things” include the points of not being barren (idle) nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ. It is apparent from this that Peter was not advocating any half-measure of Christian endeavor; for his outline of the divine will includes the growth of grace in our hearts, and also the outward expression of the same in activity and fruit-bearing consistent with the knowledge of Christ.
The term “virtue,” as used by the apostle when he says that we should add to our faith “virtue,” has more the thought of “fortitude.” Fortitude is very essential in the Christian life. It is strength of character—not our own strength, but the strength derived from the exercise of faith in the Lord. We should never cease to look to the Lord for help in every time of need; and to seek such strength and help through the channels which He has provided; namely, prayer, study of the Word and fellowship with the brethren. But we should not make a hobby out of being strong, for we could, by so doing be thrown off guard, and fail—“Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”—I Cor. 10:12
We need to confidently trust in the Lord for grace to help in every time of need, and upon the basis of this confidence to be “strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” (Eph. 6:10) And then we need to add to our fortitude, knowledge. We cannot, in fact, be truly strong in the Lord apart from a certain degree of knowledge of God and of His plan. We must know God in order to trust Him, and the better we know Him, the more fully we can trust Him. If we are to grow in knowledge, we need to study, and we also need to apply the knowledge as we acquire it. Viewed from this standpoint we can see that knowledge is fundamentally important to our Christian growth; for God deals with us upon the basis of knowledge, and not of ignorance.
KNOWLEDGE ALONE INSUFFICIENT
But the acquiring of knowledge merely to become informed should not be the objective of our study. The attaining of an accurate knowledge of the truth is not in itself the true goal of Christian effort. It is through a knowledge of the truth that we know about justice and lovingkindness, as these attributes of character are displayed by God. Our walking humbly with our God is dependent upon our knowledge of the divine will. It is only as we know God’s will that our humility is put to the test in obeying it.
Our text says, “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good.” How has the Lord showed us what is good, that is, what He requires of us? It is through a knowledge of His Word. It follows then, that we cannot know what the Lord requires unless we attain a knowledge of His will. For this reason we need to “study” in order that we might show ourselves approved unto God. From this standpoint we can glory in our knowledge of the plan—not because we know a lot about it, but because through it God and His will have been revealed to us. “But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”—Jer. 9:24
“AND TO KNOWLEDGE, TEMPERANCE”
Peter says that we should add to our knowledge, temperance—self-control. We cannot “do justly” unless we have a large measure of control over self, for the fallen flesh, by nature, is very selfish and very unjust. Being selfish by nature, we need to be filled and controlled by the spirit of God, the spirit of love, in order to “love mercy,” or lovingkindness. The fallen flesh would rebel against the divine leadings if permitted to do so, hence it must be brought under the control of the new creature and kept in the pathway of those who “walk humbly” with their God.
Self-control, therefore, is fundamental in our effort to meet the three major divine requirements mentioned in our text. This puts the element of self-control in its proper position in the Christian life. It is not a matter of controlling self just for the sake of controlling self, or in order that we might boast that we “haven’t sinned for twenty years,” but rather that we might bring ourselves into line with the divine will. We keep our own desires in the background in order that God’s will might take first place in our lives. We deny the flesh its way, in order that God may have His way.
“AND TO TEMPERANCE, PATIENCE”
“And to temperance, patience.” Here the word patience has the thought of cheerful endurance. There are many obstacles in the way of being a faithful Christian, and to keep on surmounting these obstacles, we will need to cheerfully “endure.” Without this quality of endurance we would soon become “weary in well-doing” and faint by the wayside. When we deal justly with others, we may frequently receive injustice in return. When we display love and mercy towards others, it may often be unappreciated, and, perhaps even scorned. When we insist upon walking in God’s way, instead of our own, or in the way of others, we will be opposed by the world, the flesh and the devil, hence will need a large measure of cheerful endurance in order to continue on.
“AND TO PATIENCE, GODLINESS”
The term “godliness,” as used by Peter when he says that we should add godliness to patience is translated from a Greek word meaning “piety.” Prof. Strong suggests that the piety is specially that which is reflected in the “gospel scheme.” In other words, it’s not piety according to pagan or Hindu standards. Neither is it piety according to the standards of one or another branch of the nominal church, but the piety reflected in the gospel of Christ.
The term piety is defined as being “Habitual veneration or reverence for a Supreme Being.” The Supreme Being for whom we have this reverence is our Heavenly Father. The reason we reverence Him is because we have learned to know Him, hence piety is properly added to knowledge. We cannot have true reverence for God until first we learn to know Him. In our ignorance we might dread God, but true reverence and veneration are based upon knowledge; and the more we know about our Heavenly Father, the greater will be our piety.
To godliness, or piety, we should add “brotherly kindness,” the apostle says. This means an affectionate, or fraternal interest in the brethren. As we learn to know God, it should lead to this family interest in His people. Where such an interest is lacking it would indicate, also, a lack of genuine love for God; “for,” writes the Apostle John, “he that loveth not his brethren whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen.”—I John 4:20
“And to brotherly kindness charity, or love.” “Charity” is here translated from the Greek word agape which describes the great divine principle of unselfishness. It goes beyond brotherly kindness in that it causes us to bestow blessings even upon our enemies. It is true Godlikeness in action. God sends the rain and the sunshine upon the just and upon the unjust, and we are also to be all-comprehensive in the bestowing of our blessings. Failing in this we certainly would not be meeting the requirements of our text—we would not do justly, nor love mercy, nor walk humbly with our God.
When the apostle said, “If ye do these things, ye shall never fall,” he didn’t mean that if we do one of them we will never fall. We should not conclude that if we have sufficient knowledge it will make up for a lack along other lines. We should not decide that if we have a super-abundance of brotherly love, we can get along without knowledge, nor can we be indifferent about the kind of knowledge we possess. To revert to the illustration used by the prophet in our text, we should not come to the Lord with a thousand rams, and no oil, nor with ten thousands of rivers of oil, and no rams. All of the Lord’s requirements are important, and we should not set any one or more aside in order to specialize upon those that are more to our liking because they fit in with our viewpoints or are pleasing to our flesh.
THE VALUE OF PRAYER
Outstanding in the life of every Christian is the privilege of prayer. Many are the admonitions of the Scriptures pertaining to the subject of prayer. So important is prayer to the Christian that he would die spiritually without it. But even prayer loses its true value when other features of God’s will and purpose for us are neglected or discarded. In prayer we express our thanksgiving to God, we seek His forgiveness of sin, and we ask Him for guidance and strength in our daily efforts to do His will. The apostle admonishes us to be “instant in prayer.” (Rom. 12:12) This seems to suggest that our hearts should instantly turn to the Lord in prayer in “every time of need,” as well as to constantly maintain the spirit of prayer, or the prayerful attitude, in all our enterprises.
Prayer should not be viewed as a ceremonial rite, but as one of the divine provisions of grace. In proportion as the Spirit of God is filling our lives, we will delight in the privilege of prayer. There will be so many things for which to be thankful to the Lord that we will want to go to Him often to express our thanks and praise. We should ever be mindful of our imperfections, hence realize our need of forgiveness, and this, too, will send us often to the throne of grace. And then we have so many needs. We need strength, we need wisdom, and a proper recognition of these needs will constitute another reason why we will turn to the Lord in prayer.
Prayer, therefore, should be a spontaneous pouring out of our hearts to God, a delighting to come into His presence—through Christ—that we may commune with Him. What a wonderful privilege is prayer! Like little children coming to their parents, we, as the children of God, can enter into our Heavenly Father’s presence, and to Him express our joys, and sorrows. We can ask Him to forgive us and help us; and we can do this with the full assurance that He is ever ready and willing to hear us, sympathetically and understandingly.
Prayer, thus, is one of the blessed privileges of the Christian, and is one of the means of grace which enables us to press forward in the narrow way towards our glorious goal. Prayer is a means to an end, but is not an end in itself. Precious as prayer is to the followers of the Master, being as has often been said, the Christian’s “vital breath,” we should not dwell on the subject of prayer to the exclusion of everything else and as though faithfulness in prayer is the only objective for which we are striving. It is a privilege and a necessity to come before the Lord with a liberal portion of the “oil” of prayer, but if we lose sight of the real objective—the making of our calling and election sure—even “ten thousands of rivers” of such oil will not meet the Lord’s requirements.
SERVING THE BRETHREN
We are admonished to lay down our lives for the brethren. (I John 3:16) What a privilege this is, and what a blessed opportunity it affords to demonstrate our love for them. We are to “do justly,” always, and towards all, but to lay down our lives for others, goes beyond the demands of justice. This sacrificial service is prompted by love—the love of God. If we are faithfully laying down our lives for the brethren it means that the Lord’s requirement of lovingkindness is at least to some extent being worked out in our lives. Laying down our lives for the brethren is one of the practical ways in which we express the spirit of love, which is the spirit of Christ.
But there are other avenues of service as well, therefore God’s requirements of us would not be met if we devoted all our energies toward the accomplishment of but one of them. And even in the matter of laying down our lives for the brethren, there is a possibility of having too restricted a view of who constitute our brethren. We may think of our brethren as consisting merely of the few with whom we are personally acquainted, and reason that we have fulfilled our obligations to our brethren when we make sure that we have done what we could for their spiritual and material welfare.
It is often true, however, that the brethren who need our help the most are those with whom we are not personally acquainted nor directly associated. Our interest, so far as possible, should be in all the brethren. Some of them, like the lost sheep of the parable, may be temporarily outside of the fold; that is, out of touch with the Lord’s people, and perhaps discouraged and bewildered. These need to hear again the voice of the Good Shepherd, the voice of truth. In order for them to have an opportunity to hear it, the truth needs to be proclaimed by every means at our disposal, and as widely as possible. In this way our brethren who need our help the most are reached and blessed. And we, in turn, are richly blessed in the self-sacrificing efforts we make to bless others.
And then again, in the largest, broadest aspect, we should not forget the fact that some of our brethren may not, as yet, have heard the truth; hence, to lay down our lives for them means we will do all we can to reach them with the message which they so much need. And for those we can thus reach with the truth, we will continue to do all we can by helping them to grow strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
PREACH THE WORD
Faithfulness in all the requirements of the Lord means that we will be on the alert to use every opportunity we have to preach the Word; that is, to make known the glad tidings of the Kingdom. Faithfulness to the Lord’s instructions pertaining to this phase of the Christian life is closely associated with our faithfulness in laying down our lives for the brethren. It means that we should not be active in publishing the truth simply with the thought that by such activity alone we are meriting God’s favor, or meeting His requirements.
Activity in the service of the truth should result from our own filling of the truth and its spirit; and such a heart appreciation of what it means that we will not want to refrain from telling others about it. We should not engage in the service of the truth with the thought that by faithfulness in such service we can earn our way into the Kingdom. It is by grace that we are saved, and it will be by grace that we will attain a place in the Kingdom—not by works, of whatsoever sort they may be. But God wants us to appreciate His grace. He is pleased when we appreciate it enough to be willing to lay down our lives in the telling of it to others.
In the divine economy God has graciously arranged that the overflow of appreciation from the hearts of His consecrated people can be utilized by Him for the reaching and blessing of others. Thus we can lay down our lives for the brethren. Thus we can bear witness for the truth, and with the assurance that our labors will not be in vain in the Lord. We will rejoice in the privilege of such labors, not because we necessarily see direct results in the lives of others, but because we will be glad for the opportunity of thus expressing our love for God. We will rejoice in this privilege because we will know that it is God’s will for us, and, therefore, are happy in the knowledge that we are doing His will—“walking humbly with our God.”
“WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION”
Individualism is essential in the Christian life. Not individualism in the sense of self-sufficiency, but in the sense that we learn individually to trust in the Lord for strength and guidance. We should not need to lean upon fellow-Christians in order to stand. We should not expect others to work out our salvation for us, for “it is God which worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:13) This is a very important principle in the Christian life, and happy are we if we can learn properly to apply it.
It is a tendency of human weakness to lean upon others, especially upon those in whom we have learned to have confidence. Almost unconsciously we find ourselves being swayed by the judgment and actions of those whom we love and trust. It is all right to follow others to the extent that they are following the Lord; but in doing it we need always to be on the alert to make sure that those with whom we walk are truly following in the footsteps of the Master. “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good,” should be the earnest endeavor of all the fully consecrated.—I Thess. 5:21
But there is a proper spiritual balance in this thought also. Here as in other matters, we should be on guard against the “ten thousand of rivers of oil.” We are to maintain an individual relationship with the Lord, one that is so real, so vital, that even though our dearest friend in the truth should turn aside, we would not be led astray by him nor with him. But this doesn’t mean that we should try to get along without the fellowship and help of the brethren. While God has promised to give us strength in every time of need, to work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure, yet He has His own ways of doing this. One of those ways is through the brethren.
For example, God provokes us to love and good works, not by a miraculous infilling of the Holy Spirit, but by an arrangement whereby we “provoke one another.” For this reason the apostle admonishes us not to forsake “the assembling of ourselves together.” (Heb. 10:25) It seems reasonable to conclude, furthermore, that from the divine standpoint the proper assembling of ourselves together involves more than merely a casual meeting with others of like precious faith. It seems reasonable to conclude that the apostle’s reference is to a regularity of meetings, and in harmony with the ecclesia’s arrangements outlined elsewhere in the apostolic writings.
Indeed, the Scriptures give explicit instructions covering the proper assembling of the Lord’s people; which instructions include the electing of various servants of the ecclesia. This is something else the Lord wants us to do, and if we are to have the Lord’s full favor we should not ignore what His inspired apostles have had to say about it. We cannot safely assume to make exceptions to these arrangements for our fellowship with the brethren, taking the attitude that in our case or in the case of others, it doesn’t make any difference.
Ecclesia arrangements for the brethren generally impose a great test of humility upon all concerned. The ecclesia may not always elect those whom we might like to see elected. It may not elect us, and we may think that is a mistake. But in such cases we all have a wonderful opportunity to display patience, forbearance and humility. It is well to remember that the Lord can get along without us, and also that the Lord can bless us through the services of those whom we might not choose according to the flesh.
It is certain that we stand to lose many rich blessings from the Lord once we conclude that all the brethren in an ecclesia but us are out of step, and that we alone are right. Perhaps such an attitude on our part may be the very reason why the Lord, in His wisdom and love, permits us to be temporarily left out of the active arrangements of the ecclesia with which we are associated.
ECCLESIAS AND CHRISTIAN LIBERTY
True Christian liberty is a priceless treasure which all the consecrated should zealously guard, not only for their own spiritual welfare, but also in order that they may be the greatest help possible to others. The Lord’s people, at times, find themselves in conditions of bondage from which they find it necessary to withdraw. Such withdrawals should be made with resolute determination and in love. “Come out of her, My people,” is one of the Lord’s commands which should not be ignored when we discover that we are in Babylonish bondage.
But here again, let us not bring “thousands of rams” to the Lord when He has asked merely for one. Let us not try to be so “free” that we will consider ourselves above proper and Scriptural ecclesia arrangements. It might seem well enough to us to say, “I want to be free to come and go as I please, and to meet where I please. I don’t want to be bound down to being a member in some one ecclesia. I love all the Lord’s people.” But does such an attitude seem good to the Lord? Does the Lord want us to be so “free” as all that?
There is an old adage which says that a “rolling stone gathers no moss,” and it undoubtedly works out in the spiritual realm. Great blessings are attached to being a part of a definite association of friends who, together, endeavor to carry on with the work of the Lord—the work of building up themselves in the most holy faith, and also the work of spreading the truth for the good of others. If we only occasionally drop in among the brethren here and there, we can, of course, receive some blessings, and perhaps, give them some also, but the fullness of divine blessings which might be ours through obedience to all that the Lord has asked, is lost.
And then there are certain responsibilities attached to being a part of a Scripturally organized ecclesia. There is a blessing in meeting these responsibilities. There is the responsibility of “stretching forth the hand” in voting for servants of the ecclesia. If we shirk this responsibility, either by holding aloof entirely from ecclesias, or otherwise, we are neglecting one of the important means of grace which the Lord has provided. We are missing a blessing ourselves, and come short of being as great a blessing to others as is our privilege.
While we are not to lean upon others, we are to be as great a help to others as possible, and are to expect that the Lord will use others to bless us. It is our privilege to work for and to expect a large degree of unity of thought and action among the brethren. Let us not conclude that because we hold the same views as another that we are allowing him to do our thinking for us. Let us be on guard against the subtle suggestion that if we agree with Brother Russell, we are Russellites. If we have the truth we should understand the doctrines of the Scriptures alike; and to the extent that we are able to do this, we will be blessed by the Lord as He uses us to help each other. The proper use of privileges and responsibilities along this line does not represent spiritual bondage, but merely a proper respect for the arrangements the Lord has made for all His people. If we ignore them, and specialize along other lines, we miss many of the blessings the Lord has provided for us.
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
Another detail of the Lord’s will for His people of this age is that they “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” (Jude 3) The exercise of this privilege has a very direct bearing upon our success in doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God. It is through the “most holy faith” that we understand something of the character of God, of His truth and His love. It is through the truth that we know what God’s will is for us, hence are able to walk humbly before Him in doing that will.
If we appreciate the wonderful light of truth as we should we will gladly contend for it. We will guard it as a precious treasure in our own hearts, and do all in our power to help others do the same. If we decide that the truth does not seem as important as it formerly did, and are inclined to take the attitude that it doesn’t make much difference what we believe, we might well consider it as a danger signal to warn us of the possible loss of that through which God has revealed His loving kindness to us.
Failure to contend earnestly for the faith may be caused by our specializing along some other line of what the Lord requires. Perhaps we have decided that prayer and brotherly love are the only essential elements of Christian experience, and conclude that we can pray and love the brethren no matter what we believe or what they believe. Our human reasoning may have convinced us that this is the tolerant, Godlike conception of what a Christian should do and be. Perhaps the basis of this human reasoning may be the fact that we already have lost our own faith in many of the doctrines of the truth; and, because we consider them non-essential, all others should do likewise.
But what is the Lord’s will in this? The Lord has said that we are sanctified by the truth, and that we should contend earnestly for this truth by which we are sanctified, in order that it may be kept pure, and that through it we may see His will revealed more and more clearly. Are we walking humbly with God when we conclude that it isn’t necessary to contend for the faith? Evidently not. Let us not assume that in this, nor along any other lines, we can balance the scales of the Lord’s requirements by ignoring His plain instructions while we specialize in a field that is pleasing to our own flesh, or meets the demands of our own human reasoning.
THE GREAT OBJECTIVES
So we might go on recalling the various details of what the Lord has outlined as being His will for us, and we would find that each of these details, in its own way, contributes to bring us nearer to the great objective of what the Lord requires in the lives of all those whom He will honor with special service in His Kingdom. That great character objective is of a threefold nature, as is shown in our text—justice, love, and humility before God.
To “do justly,” simply means to obey the Golden Rule—to do unto others as we would that others should do unto us. This, in itself, is a very high standard; one that is hard to attain. Let us try to keep it in mind in our daily associations with the brethren and with the world. It will put us on guard against saying and doing those things which will injure others. It will be a check to hinder us from those little transgressions against others of which we are so often guilty.
But justice is only the beginning. Beyond this we are to “love mercy.” As already mentioned, the word here translated “mercy” really means “lovingkindness.” It is the lovingkindness of God. It is that great principle of unselfishness which is back of all God’s works. We are to “love” this principle. That is, according to the Hebrew word here used, we are to affectionately love kindness, or lovingkindness. We are to be so whole-heartedly in harmony with unselfishness that it can be said that we are “in love” with it.
If this be true, then it means that the love of God will be the consuming passion of our lives—that self, and all its interests will be set aside, and our lives will be dominated by divine love, a love that gives and gives and gives, that others may be blessed. Knowing that God so loved the world that He gave the dearest treasure of His heart that the people might be blessed, and knowing that He wants us to be filled with the same kind of love, we will permit nothing to stand in the way of our giving all, no matter how costly the giving may prove to be.
But even then we will have failed to obtain the full objective of God’s will for us unless we “walk humbly” with our God. God wants us to sacrifice our whole being in His service, and in ways not to work injustices upon others. But in addition to that, He wants us to make the sacrifice in harmony with all the instructions He has laid down for us in His Word. He wants us, in laying down our lives in His service, to observe all the “bes” and the “be nots”; and all the “dos” and the “do nots.” He wants us to bring our rams and our oil—not “thousands of rams,” and “ten thousands of rivers of oil,” but just the amount He asks for, and just the kind He asks for; yes and all the kinds He asks for.
Failing in this we fail to walk humbly with Him, hence fail to meet His requirements. These requirements are heart-searching and exacting. Indeed, they would be quite beyond our reach should we fail to use all the means of grace which He has provided to help us attain to them. But let us remember that He is our helper; and let us remember the various means which He has provided to help us, and use those means for our own blessing, and to His glory. He has shown us what is good, even as He revealed His will to His people of old, and it remains only for us to prayerfully, and zealously strive day by day to be faithful in doing it.