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EXTRACTS

How happy it is when parents and disciples can see that a true

desire to please the Lord is active in the children! Instead of

unruliness there is now a spirit of subjection; instead of the

Lord’s things being a bore they begin to be attractive; His

people are loved and their company sought; it becomes a

pleasure to render little acts of service; there is contentment

without the pleasures of the world, and preparedness to bear a

little reproach for the name of Jesus. All these things are

evidences of a walk in newness of life which are not beyond

the measure of a child of twelve.

The Lord “desired that something should be given her to eat”.

When movements in life are seen it is most important to supply

food to nourish the life that is there. Do not let us think that

young people cannot appreciate the food of God’s house.

They can appreciate it, and often they get its value more fully

than some who are older. It is interesting to think of the age of

twelve as a time when there may be definite movement of soul

occasioned by personal exercise before God. I believe a child

of that age may be competent to distinguish between what is

of flesh and what is of the Spirit, and may have power in life to

walk according to the Spirit and to refuse what is of the flesh.

C. A. Coates (‘The Food of Life’, p.63)

The kingdom, like the Lord Himself, came into the world

almost unperceived. It is righteousness, peace, and joy in the

Holy Spirit, and men hardly knew that it was there nor what it

was. The kingdom of God was among them when Christ was

here, but it had come without observation.

F. E. Raven (Vol. 4, p.77)