Many Who Believe Refuse To Confess Christ

John 12:42  Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: 

It is very profitable to observe what temptations have overcome men in past times. None can estimate the force of temptation, excepting those who are actually under its influence. Even those temptations by which we ourselves have once been overcome, appear feeble and insignificant when we are removed from their power. 

We have read of a young ruler who refused to follow Christ because he had great possessions. Now we read of many rulers who refused to confess him, because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. 

What various reasons men have for not doing the will of God! 

But there is not one of all those reasons that will appear a strong one at the last day. 

We cannot, thought these rulers, "confess that Jesus is the Son of God, lest we should be put out of the synagogue." 

There was a beggar born blind who endured the trial; why could not they endure it? When he was cast out, the Son of God found him and revealed himself unto him. Had those rulers acted as he did, they would have been comforted as he was. 

One word from the Son of God could impart more peace to the heart than the plaudits of a whole multitude, or the praise of the whole Sanhedrin.

But it appeared to these rulers an insupportable calamity to be put out of the synagogue. Not to be allowed to approach within an arm's length of any person, or to eat and drink with any for thirty days, was a trial they would not encounter. 

Then if, at the end of thirty days, they continued to confess Christ, a curse would be pronounced on them in the midst of the congregation, accompanied by the extinguishing of lights, and the sounding of trumpets. 

Then would follow destitution, and desolation, and disgrace. They would be deprived of their property, forbidden to hire or to be hired, to buy or to sell, to teach or be taught; when they died stones would be cast at their coffin, and none would follow them to the grave.

These things were sufficient to terrify a human heart; but yet what were they all, compared to the woes God will inflict on the unbelieving and the fearful!

Not to be permitted to approach our fellow-mortals is not so dreadful as to be separated from saints and angels and God and Christ forever and ever. 

The sudden darkness in the synagogue, and the clangor of trumpets, could not be as appalling as the darkness of the sun at noonday, and the sound of the last trumpet!

But though these rulers believed that Jesus was the Christ, they did not believe with the heart. They did not love him. 

They loved men more than God; therefore they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. 

It is possible that a true believer may be tempted to deny his Lord...but then he will not continue in the sin. 

Peter denied Christ; but one "kind upbraiding glance" brought him to repentance, and made him go out and weep bitterly. 

These rulers were not like Peter. They could bear to see their companions insult the Lord day after day, and yet never take his part...they could bear to hear them plotting his death, and yet be silent. 

They were content to be on good terms with his enemies, and not to be counted among his friends. 

Could they have done this had they loved him? O no! had they loved him they would, on some occasion, have betrayed their feelings. 

Nicodemus could not sit in the Sanhedrin and hear the Lord calumniated. He exclaimed, "Does our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he does?" and thus he brought upon himself the derision of the assembly.

Could an affectionate son hear his father insulted day after day, and never show by word or look how deeply he was wounded!

Perhaps we never hear men speak openly against Jesus himself. But do we not meet with many who speak against his laws and his people?

It is before such persons that we are called upon to confess him. 

If we do not seem to approve of worldly amusements, if we show an attachment to truly religious people, if we refuse to smile at sin, and to admire what the world admires, the enemies of Christ will hate and despise us. 

Are we willing to bear their hatred and contempt for our dear Master's sake?

Is Christ's approbation dearer to us than the world's admiration? 

These are signs that we love the Lord, and that he loves us; and that he will confess us when he comes in his glory with all his holy angels.

~ Favell Lee Mortimer (1802—1878)~

THE WHEAT AND THE TARES

Children of the Kingdom are sown in the earth, and then by night the enemy comes and sows his own children, children of his kingdom. They are the children of the Devil.

His method is suitable to his object. His object being completely to nullify what is of God, his method is to imitate it. 

That is a wile of that evil wisdom of Satan - imitation children of God mixed in with the true children of God in order to nullify. 

The workers are represented as coming to the owner of the field and telling him what they have found there, and he says, 'Ah, an enemy has done this.'

And they say, 'What would you have us do? Shall we pluck up this other thing?'

He replies: 'No - let the sovereignty have its way!

Let them both grow together, and the sovereignty, the rule of Heaven, will progressively make very clear which is which.

The sovereign rule will make manifest what is of itself, and what is otherwise.

Only the sovereign rule of God can bring out into clearness what is of God. But that will happen as we go on. We can trust the sovereign rule. That is very practical: it works like this. 

There are those who are truly of God, of Heaven; and then there are those who come in - who perhaps sing the hymns, use the phraseology, carry on the same way, associate with those of the Kingdom; but there is a difference. 

Deep down, they are really "not of us". 

They are just imitations; they are not real, not the genuine thing. 

We may discern, as these men discerned, that there is something here that is not the same thing, something that is foreign, that is alien and strange.

What are we going to do? Had we better turn them out, tell them to go?

No, no! Go on long enough, and they will go of themselves.

The two things will be self-manifested, and it will be quite easy in the long run. "They went out from us", said John, "that they might be made manifest that they all are not of us" (1 John 2:19). 

This is a heavenly principle, you see - there is a manifestation. 

It is difficult to endure patiently those people who you sense have not, as we say, the root of the matter in them - who are just camp-followers. 

But, as with the mixed multitude that left Egypt with Israel, time and testing will find them out. 

~T. Austin Sparks~

The Life-Giving Stream

Eze 47:9  And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.

The living waters, in the prophet's vision, flowed into the Dead Sea and carried life with them, even into that stagnant lake.

Where grace goes, spiritual life is the immediate and the everlasting consequence. 

Grace proceeds sovereignly according to the will of God, even as a river in all its windings follows its own sweet will; and wherever it comes it does not wait for life to come to it, but it creates life by its own quickening flow.

Oh, that it would pour along our streets and flood our slums! 

Oh, that it would now come into my house and rise till every chamber were made to swim with it!

LORD, let the living water flow to my family and my friends, and let it not pass me by.

I hope I have drunk of it already; but I desire to bathe in it, yea, to swim in it.

O my Savior, I need life more abundantly. Come to me, I pray Thee, till every part of my nature is vividly energetic and intensely active.

Living God, I pray Thee, fill me with Thine own life. I am a poor, dry stick; come and make me so to live that, like Aaron's rod, I may bud and blossom and bring forth fruit unto Thy glory. 

Quicken me, for the sake of my LORD Jesus. Amen.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Broad Rivers Without Galleys

But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby  (Isaiah 33:21).

The LORD will be to us the greatest good without any of the drawbacks which seem necessarily to attend the best earthly things.

If a city is favored with broad rivers, it is liable to be attacked by galleys with oars and other ships of war.

But when the LORD represents the abundance of His bounty under this figure, He takes care expressly to shut out the fear which the metaphor might suggest.

Blessed be His perfect love! 

LORD, if Thou send me wealth like broad rivers, do not let the galley with oars come up in the shape of worldliness or pride.

If Thou grant me abundant health and happy spirits, do not let "the gallant ship" of carnal ease come sailing up the flowing flood. 

If I have success in holy service, broad as the German Rhine, yet let me never find the galley of self-conceit and self-confidence floating on the waves of my usefulness.

Should I be so supremely happy as to enjoy the light of Thy countenance year after year, yet let me never despise Thy feeble saints, nor allow the vain notion of my own perfection to sail up the broad rivers of my full assurance. 

LORD, give me that blessing which maketh rich and neither addeth sorrow nor aideth sin.

 

~C.H. Spurgeon~

I Must Take Off My Earthly Garments, And Put On My Sacred Dress

Eze 42:14  When the priests enter therein, then shall they not go out of the holy place into the utter court, but there they shall lay their garments wherein they minister; for they are holy; and shall put on other garments, and shall approach to those things which are for the people.
 
The priests which Ezekiel mentions, take great discipline and preparation to please God.

In compliance with His command, they clothe themselves in holy robes of the fairest linen. They make ready for drawing near His holy Presence.

Just so, I must be willing to take time and effort in my worship. Every day, I must pass into my sacred shrine to be with God. 

With a set purpose, I must take off my earthly garments, and put on my sacred dress.
 

I have to hush myself into quietness. I have to beseech the Holy Spirit for His empowerment.
 

I have to steadfastly study the majesty, the purity, and the grace of the God to Whom I come.
 

Much mental concentration is required of me. A sincere and honest heart is also required.
 

I am called to earnest contemplation and prayer.
 

When the service of the priests is over in the inner sanctuary, they divest themselves of the robes of whiteness in which they stood before the Lord. 

They do not show themselves to the people in a garb so venerable. God keeps something to Himself, something which shall be known only to His servants and to Him.
 

Just so, I cannot disclose everything in my secret place with others.

There are heights and depths in the truth I am being taught, in the mercy I have received--which I do not yet comprehend, and over which I shall have to ponder all my life long.
 

And I ought not to disclose everything. To unveil my most sublime spiritual experiences, will injure me.
 

It would lessen humility, and foster pride. It would rub the delicate bloom from off my character.
 

It would make my secret place a beaten path. My sanctuary clothing is not for the public outer court.
 

Yet mine is a God who is never distant and inaccessible. 

The priests of old, left the shrine and went out into the world. 

But the Lord abides in the Holy Place still. 

We need only to return, and to clothe themselves anew in our holy vestments, and we will find Him the same as before--a God Who rejoices to hear our cry, Who delights in our sincere, yet poor and disappointing services, Who will lift up His countenance on us and give us peace.
 

When I call upon Him, withdrawing myself from all others and all else--He is near as my strong Refuge and and my ever-present Help in times of trouble. 

The doors of His Holy Place are never barred; and, within the doors, His gracious welcome awaits me.
 

May He be the Temple that is the dearest spot on earth to me.
May I be priest to serve Him day and night.

Psa 91:1  He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

~Alexander Smellie~

Complete Safety

Deut. 33:12  And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by him; and the LORD shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.

Yes, there is no safety like that which comes of dwelling near to God. For His best beloved the LORD can find no surer or safer place. 

O LORD, let me always abide under Thy shadow, close to Thy wounded side. Nearer and nearer would I come to Thee, my LORD; and when once specially near Thee, I would abide there forever. 

What a covering is that which the LORD gives to His chosen! Not a fair roof shall cover him, nor a bomb-proof casement, nor even an angel's wing, but Jehovah Himself.

Nothing can come at us when we are thus covered. This covering the LORD will grant us all the day long, however long the day.

LORD, let me abide this day consciously beneath this canopy of love, this pavilion of sovereign power. 

Does the third clause mean that the LORD in His temple would dwell among the mountains of Benjamin or that the LORD would be where Benjamin's burden should be placed, or does it mean that we are borne upon the shoulders of the Eternal?

In any case, the LORD is the support and strength of His saints. LORD, let me ever enjoy Thy help, and then thy arms will be sufficient for me. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

No Dirty Dogs Shall Ever Trample Upon That Golden Pavement

Throughout the Scriptures, unholy people are branded, to their everlasting contempt with the worst appellations.

They are the most dangerous, and the most harmful beings in the world, and therefore are emblemized

by lions for they are cruel, Psalm 22:21;
by bears for they are savage, Isaiah 11:7;
 
by dragons for they are hideous, Ezek. 29:3;
by wolves for they are ravenous, Ezek. 22:27;
 
by dogs for they are snarling, Rev. 22:15;
by vipers and scorpions for they are stinging, Mat. 12:34, Ezek. 2:6;
 
by spiders and cockatrices for they are poisoning, Isaiah 59:5;
by swine for they are intemperate, Mat. 7:6.

Remember this...that all these stinging expressions and
appellations which disgrace and vilify unholy people, were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and published in His holy Word.

The glutton is depicted as a swine;
 
the fraudulent person is depicted as a fox;
the lustful person is depicted as a goat;
 
the backbiter is depicted as a barking cur;
the slanderer is depicted as an asp;
 
the oppressor is depicted as a wolf;
the persecutor is depicted as a tiger;
 
the seducer is depicted as a serpent.

Do you think that God will admit such vermin as unholy people are...to eternally inhabit His holy heaven? Surely not!

God has long since resolved upon it that no unclean beasts shall enter into heaven that no dirty dogs shall ever trample upon that golden pavement.
 
Certainly God will not allow such beasts and toads and snakes and serpents to forever live with Him!
 
Heaven is  too holy a place to admit such vermin to inhabit!

Nothing impure will ever enter it. Revelation 21:27

Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood." Revelation 22:15

All in heaven are holy: the angels holy, the saints holy but the Lord Himself above all, is most glorious in holiness.

Now certainly it would be a hell to these holy ones to have unholy wretches to be their eternal companions!

When the holy angels fell from their holiness heaven was so holy that it spewed them out!

Certainly there will be no room in heaven for such filthy beasts as unholy people are!

Jerusalem above is too glorious a habitation for beasts or for men of beastly spirits, or beastly principles, or beastly practices.

The city of the great God was never built for beasts.
 
A wilderness and not a paradise is fittest for beasts.

~Thomas Brooks~ 

What Of My House?

Act 16:31  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. 

This gospel for a man with a sword at his throat is the gospel for me. 

This would suit me if I were dying, and it is all that I need while I am living.

I look away from self, and sin, and all idea of personal merit, and I trust the LORD Jesus as the Savior whom God has given. 

I believe in Him, I rest on Him, I accept Him to be my all in all. 

LORD, I am saved, and I shall be saved to all eternity, for I believe in Jesus. Blessed be Thy name for this.

May I daily prove by my life that I am saved from selfishness, and worldliness, and every form of evil. 

But those last words about my "house": LORD, I would not run away with half a promise when Thou dost give a whole one. 

I beseech Thee, save all my family. Save the nearest and dearest. Convert the children and the grandchildren, if I have any. 

Be gracious to my servants and all who dwell under my roof or work for me. 

Thou makest this promise to me personally if I believe in the LORD Jesus; I beseech Thee to do as Thou hast said. 

I would go over in my prayer every day the names of all my brothers and sisters, parents, children, friends, relatives, servants, and give Thee no rest till that word is fulfilled, "and thy house."

~Charles Spurgeon~

We Begin At The Lowest Grade

Mat 11:29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 

All of Christian life is a school.  

Learn from Me, said the Master.

We are only beginners when we first become Christians, and enter Christ's school. We begin at the lowest grade. 

We do not have to wait until we know a great deal before we begin to attend school. School is not for finished scholars but for the most ignorant. 

We may come to Christ when we know almost nothing. He is the teacher and all believers are learners. 

Learn from Me for I am gentle. Gentleness is a lesson which we are to learn. It will probably take us a good long while to learn this lesson but we must learn it because it is in Christ's curriculum for all His students.

Contentment is another lesson which we must learn. When he was well along in life, Paul said, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation." It was a long and difficult lesson for him to learn. 

Patience is a lesson that has to be learned. An impatient person is not a complete Christian.  

Thoughtfulness is a necessary lesson. There are a great many thoughtless Christians. They are always blundering in their interactions with others. They say the wrong word, they do the wrong thing. 

They are always hurting other people's feelings, giving pain to gentle hearts. Yet it is all from thoughtlessness. "I didn't mean to offend him. I didn't mean to be unkind. I just never thought!"  

There are few lessons in Christian life that more people need to learn, than this of thoughtfulness.

We have to learn to trust. Worry is a sin. It is probably as great a sin as dishonesty or profanity or bad temper. 

Yet a good many Christian people worry and one of the most important lessons in Christ's school, is to learn not to worry.  

Kindness is a lesson we must learn. It takes many years to learn the one little lesson of kindness.

Joy is a lesson to be learned.  
Peace is another.

Humility is another necessary lesson.

Praise is a great lesson.

All of life is a school, and it is in learning these lessons that Jesus says we shall find rest for your souls. 

Christ Himself is our teacher, and with Him we should never fail to learn, though it be only slowly. 

Then as we learn our lessons, our lives will grow continually more and more into quietness, peace and Christlikeness.

~J. R. Miller~

It Is Not The Work Of The Spirit To Produce Doubts And Fears, But To Overcome Them

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

It is not the work of the Spirit to produce doubts and fears, but to overcome them. 

And yet we are continually subject to them. Infidel thoughts fly across the mind; doubts and questionings suggest themselves; 

Satan is busy in plying his arguments; a guilty conscience falls too readily under his accusations; 

Painful recollections of past slips, falls, and backslidings strengthen the power of unbelief, so that to come to a spot wherein there is not the least shadow of a doubt of divine realities, and, what is far more, of our own saving interest in them, is a rare circumstance, and only attainable at those favored moments when the Lord is pleased to shine into the soul and settle the matter between himself and our conscience.

But these very doubts, these very questionings, these cutting, killing fears, these anxious surmising's work together for good, and are mercifully overruled for our spiritual benefit.

What else has brought us to this point that nothing short of demonstration will satisfy the soul really born and taught of God?

It must have demonstration--nothing else will do. We cannot live and die upon uncertainties. 

It won't do to be always in a state that we don't know whether we are going to heaven or hell; to be tossed up and down on a sea of uncertainty, scarcely knowing who commands the ship, what is our destination, what our present course, or what will be the end of the voyage.

Now all human wisdom leaves us upon this sea of uncertainty. It is useful in nature, but useless in grace. 

It is foolish and absurd to despise all human learning, wisdom, and knowledge. Without them we would be a horde of wild, wandering savages. 

But it is worse than foolish to make human wisdom our guide to eternity, and make reason the foundation of our faith or hope. 

What you thus believe today, you will disbelieve tomorrow; all the arguments that may convince your reasoning mind, all the appeals to your natural passions, which may seem for the time to soften your heart, and all the thoughts swaying to and fro which may sometimes lead you to hope you are right and sometimes make you to fear you are wrong--all these will be found insufficient when the soul comes into any time of real trial and perplexity.

We want, therefore, demonstration to remove and dispel all these anxious questionings, and settle the whole matter firmly in our heart and conscience; and this nothing can give us but the Spirit by revealing Christ, taking of the things of Christ, and showing them unto us, applying the word with power to our hearts, and bringing the sweetness, reality, and blessedness of divine things into our soul. 

It is only in this way that he overcomes all unbelief and infidelity, doubt and fear, and sweetly assures us that all is well between God and the soul.

~J. C. Philpot~

Before The Storm Breaks

Now, dear friends, there are two things which are important for us to notice. 

One is this: that you cannot settle that matter when the storm breaks.

If you have ever been in a really good storm you know very well that that is not the time to get things settled.

If you have not got them settled before then, you are just going to be all at sea indeed.

The forces will be far too much to cope with. You will just be thrown all over the place. 

An emergency is not the time to get quietly down to our foundations, for we are too much caught up in things.

If it is not all settled beforehand, if you do not know where you are beforehand, you will not be able to see to it when this thing breaks.

It is important to recognize that. 

Therefore this Letter would say: 'In the light of testings which will come, in view of that which is bound to break upon us at some time, now is the time to make sure that our position is an absolutely sound one, an absolutely true one, and that there is nothing doubtful about our position at all, no question about it and we know where we are, that we are not at the mercy of other people's judgments and ideas. 

We know the Lord for ourselves. We know where we are. 

Let everything go to pieces! We know where we are with the Lord.' 

That is the thing that has to be settled, and it cannot be settled when everything is going to pieces.

The other thing that is important is that we should recognize that it may not be necessary for the great ultimate upheaval and chaos and cataclysm to take place in order to bring that issue out.

Is not this the heart of every trial that comes into the Christian life? 

Any day there can come a temptation, or an adversity, some suffering, or some thing that is just calculated to throw you all over the place. 

In any such experience the question arises: What have I got of the Lord that is going to get me through this?

What have I really got now of the Lord that will stand me in stead in this crisis?

It may be something in everyday life, a family matter, a business matter, a church matter, or a personal matter, but it is something that is most testing, unsettling, upsetting.

It comes like a shock or a blow and could knock us to pieces. 

What have we got of the Lord which will see us through and will not go with the wind, will not be carried away in this hour of trial, but will stand and remain?

That is the issue of this Letter, whether it is a historic crisis in the life of Israel, or Jewry, or in the ultimate experience of the Church. 

It is coming, and has already come to multitudes of people on this earth.

It is the position today in a large part of the world, where the test is: What have we got that will see us through this terrible time? 

It is a question for many in the East today, but it is the ever-present question. 

~T. Austin Sparks~

The Company Of The Wicked Corrupts

Under the law, one who touched any dead carcass was defiled. And one who had a running sore even if he was to wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water...he would be unclean until the evening.

Now, if thus that which only represented sin, defiled under the ceremonial law...how must sin itself, the source of all uncleanness, everywhere defile!

Alas! As he was rendered unclean, if he had but touched, though unawares, the bed whereon one who had the running sore lay; so am I defiled, not only by sin rising in my own bosom...but by hearing and seeing the sin of others!
 
For the corruption of my nature is so great, that I am ready to catch the contagion. And if I do not detest, hate, and abhor it, as I should then am I polluted by it.

How pernicious, then, is the presence of the ungodly!
 
How are these fools to be avoided, whose companions are sure to be destroyed!

How gloomy that company, and how disagreeable to enter into it, where God never comes, where his glory never shines!

Surely grace rather needs oil to support its flame, than water to extinguish its fire; but water is all I can expect from the wicked.

O! miserable man, who has no other to walk with you by day, no other to talk with by night, none else to deal with abroad, or to discourse with at home!

Yet, out of the world we must go, unless we have dealings with the men of the world.

Let that, however be only in the common affairs of life, let it be dispatched with little expense of precious time, and without contracting an intimate acquaintance with them unless in view of doing good to their immortal souls.

And still, may the saints, the excellent ones of the earth be the chosen companions of my life.

Hitherto, alas! I have been ignorant of my danger; for the wicked are ever casting arrows, fire-brands, and death, in their sporting with true religion, and trifling with a world to come!

Among such madmen must I not be wounded?

Hence, let me every day beware that their filth may not cleave to me.

And bathe myself in the righteousness of the Son of God by faith; and purge my daily walk, (which, like the flesh under the law, is apt to receive the infection,) by sincere repentance; that, at the evening of my life, I may not lie down polluted in the grave, and rise in the morning of eternity with the putrefaction of sin!

~James Meikle~

THE LORD, THE SAINTS' AVENGER

Never are the ungodly further from the mark--never committed to a mistake more suicidal and fatal than when they lay the hand of injustice and oppression upon the saints of the Most High! 

God is for the saints. He is the Avenger of all those who put their trust in Him-the widow and the fatherless-and those who touch them touch the apple of His eye. 

If God is for us, who can be against us? 

A simple missionary incident may illustrate this truth. A little band of missionaries in the Fiji Islands found their home, on one occasion, surrounded by a troop of armed savages, bent upon their destruction. 

Unable, as unwilling, to fight, they closed the door, and betook themselves to prayer. Presently, the war-whoop suddenly ceased. 

On opening the door they found only one savage there. "Where are your chiefs?" he was asked. "They are gone," was the reply; they heard you praying to your God, and they knew that your God was a strong God, and they left.

How true this testimony of the savages! The God of the Christians is a strong Lord. All that strength is on the side of His people. 

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself STRONG in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him.

Consider, O my soul, this truth, that the Lord is the strength of His people and the Avenger of all who are oppressed, and will set them in a safe place from those who malign them. 

The Lord's people are an OPPRESSED people.

The ungodly oppress them-sins oppress them-afflictions oppress them-temptations oppress them-needs oppress them-infirmities oppress them-the body of sickness and suffering oppresses them-and, alas! that it should be said, even the saints often oppress them-for some of their keenest shafts have been forged and flung by a brother's hand.

But, the Lord stands up for His oppressed ones. He is the Avenger of all such. "It is God who avenges me," says David. 

Leave Him, O my soul, to vindicate your character, to redress your wrong, to rid you of your adversary, and He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noon-day.

O Lord, You have pleaded the causes of my soul."The sighing of the needy." Jesus was a sighing Savior! He often "sighed deeply in His spirit." And still He is in sympathy with His members, who sigh by reason of sin and suffering and need. For these He will arise.

Sigh on, O my soul! the sigh that breathes from a broken heart, or is wrung from an anguished spirit, or is awakened by the unkindness of the oppressor, or the wounding of a Christian brother, ascends to heaven as music in the ear of the Great High Priest within the veil, and awakens the echoes of His loving and compassionate heart.

Weeping has a voice-sighs have a language-and Jesus hears the one and understands the other. 

To nothing belonging to a saint can the Lord be indifferent. "O Lord! I am oppressed--undertake for me." 

Thus, let the burden of oppression, and sigh of need, prompt you to prayer; then shall you thank and praise Him for both.

Give to the winds your fears; Hope, and be undismayed;
God hears your sighs, and counts your tears, God shall lift up your head."

~Octavius Winslow~