Streams in the Desert

Devotional For

October 5

      Leaning Sides
      
      "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?" (S. of Sol. 8:5).
      
      Some one gained a good lesson from a Southern prayer meeting. A colored brother asked the Lord for various blessings--as you and I do, and thanked the Lord for many already received-as you and I do; but he closed with this unusual petition: "And, O Lord, support us! Yes support us Lord on every leanin' side!" Have you any leaning sides? This humble man's prayer pictures them in a new way and shows the Great Supporter in a new light also. He is always walking by the Christian, ready to extend His mighty arm and steady the weak one on "every leanin' side."
      
      "Child of My love, lean hard,
      And let Me feel the pressure of thy care;
      I know thy burden, child. I shaped it;
      Poised it in Mine Own hand; made no proportion
      In its weight to thine unaided strength,
      For even as I laid it on, I said,
      'I shall be near, and while she leans on Me,
      This burden shall be Mine, not hers;
      So shall I keep My child within the circling arms
      
      Of My Own love.' Here lay it down, nor fear
      To impose it on a shoulder which upholds
      he government of worlds. Yet closer come:
      Thou art not near enough. I would embrace thy
      care; So I might feel My child reposing on My breast.
      Thou lovest Me? I knew it. Doubt not then;
      But Wing Me, lean hard."