Streams in the Desert

Devotional For

September 16

      Heart's Sacrifice
      
      "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ" (Phil. 3:7).
      
      When they buried the blind preacher, George Matheson, they lined his grave with red roses in memory of his love-life of sacrifice. And it was this man, so beautifully and significantly honored, who wrote,
      
      "O Love that wilt not let me go,
      I rest my weary soul in Thee,
      I give Thee back the life I owe,
      That in thine ocean depths its flow
      May richer, fuller be.
      
      "O Light that followest all my way,
      I yield my flickering torch to Thee,
      My heart restores its borrowed ray,
      That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day
      May brighter, fairer be.
      
      "O Joy that seekest me through pain,
      I cannot close my heart to Thee,
      I trace the rainbow through the rain,
      And feel the promise is not vain,
      That morn shalt tearless be.
      
      "O Cross that liftest up my head,
      I dare not ask to fly from Thee,
      I lay in dust life's glory dead,
      And from the ground there blossoms red,
      Life that shall endless be."
      
      There is a legend of an artist who had found the secret of a wonderful red which no other artist could imitate. The secret of his color died with him. But after his death an old wound was discovered over his heart. This revealed the source of the matchless hue in his pictures. The legend teaches that no great achievement can be made, no lofty attainment reached, nothing of much value to the world done, save at the cost of heart's blood.