七月三日
这又丑陋又干瘦的七只母牛吃尽了那又美好又肥壮的七只母牛。法老就醒了。（创41：4）
法老睡时的梦常是我醒时的经验。我懒惰的日子常把我热心时辛勤工作果效毁坏净尽；我冷淡的时期常把火热兴奋时，适于生长的温暖冻结起来；世事的缠绕常使我属神的生命不能向前生长。我必须留心干瘦的祷告、干瘦的赞美、干瘦的工作和干瘦经验，因爲这些要把我肥壮的安慰和平安吞吃净尽。若我忽略我的祷告，总是敷衍塞责、匆忙仓惶的话，我就必丧失我所已经得到的灵福；若我不从天上时时取得新鲜的营养，不久我仓中的一点陈粮必因我灵魂的大饥荒消耗枯竭起来。当冷淡的毛虫、世俗的害虫和放纵的蝗虫，使我的心田荒芜贫瘠时，我的灵魂就枯萎雕零起来，我以前在恩典中的果子和长进就算不得什麽了。
我切愿我没有干瘦的日子，没有丑陋的时候！若我每天向着我的标竿奔跑，不久我就必会到达，但是退后的力量常使我不能得到那从上面召我来得的奖赏，幷把我辛勤所作的工作夺去。使我的日子能像“肥壮”的母牛一样的惟一方法是在适当的草场喂养它们，用那些日子来服侍神，在他的工作上，在与他的灵交上，在敬畏他的事上，幷在他的道路上服付侍他。爲什麽不该在爱心、功效和快乐上本年比往年更富足呢？我已更近属天的山峰，我已有更多认识主的经验，我就应当更像他。主啊！使我的灵命不受干瘦的咒诅；使永不叫我说：“我消瘦了，我消瘦了，我有祸了！”（改译）而让我在你的家中得到饱足和和营养，好叫我赞美你的名。
July 3
“The illfavoured and leanfleshed kine did eat up
the seven wellfavoured and fat kine.” — Genesis 41:4
Pharaoh’s dream has too
often been my waking experience. My days of sloth have ruinously destroyed all
that I had achieved in times of zealous industry; my seasons of coldness have
frozen all the genial glow of my periods of fervency and enthusiasm; and my
fits of worldliness have thrown me back from my advances in the divine life. I
had need to beware of lean prayers, lean praises, lean duties, and lean
experiences, for these will eat up the fat of my comfort and peace. If I
neglect prayer for never so short a time, I lose all the spirituality to which
I had attained; if I draw no fresh supplies from heaven, the old corn in my
granary is soon consumed by the famine which rages in my soul. When the
caterpillars of indifference, the cankerworms of worldliness, and the
palmerworms of self-indulgence, lay my heart completely desolate, and make my
soul to languish, all my former fruitfulness and growth in grace avails me
nothing whatever. How anxious should I be to have no lean-fleshed days, no
ill-favoured hours! If every day I journeyed towards the goal of my desires I
should soon reach it, but backsliding leaves me still far off from the prize of
my high calling, and robs me of the advances which I had so laboriously made.
The only way in which all my days can be as the “fat kine,” is to
feed them in the right meadow, to spend them with the Lord, in His service, in
His company, in His fear, and in His way. Why should not every year be richer
than the past, in love, and usefulness, and joy?–I am nearer the celestial
hills, I have had more experience of my Lord, and should be more like Him. O
Lord, keep far from me the curse of leanness of soul; let me not have to cry,
“My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me!” but may I be well-fed and
nourished in Thy house, that I may praise Thy name.
