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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Thoughts for the Quiet Hour, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Thoughts for the Quiet Hour
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Dwight L. Moody
+
+Release Date: September 2, 2011 [EBook #37292]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOUGHTS FOR THE QUIET HOUR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Emmy and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Bold text is surrounded by =equal signs= and italic
+text by _underscores_.]
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS
+
+FOR
+
+THE QUIET HOUR
+
+Edited By D. L. Moody
+
+[Illustration]
+
+ Fleming H. Revell Company
+ CHICAGO : NEW YORK : TORONTO
+ _Publishers of Evangelical Literature_
+
+
+
+
+ Copyrighted 1900
+ by
+ Fleming H. Revell Company
+
+
+
+
+TO THE READER
+
+
+One of the brightest signs of the times is that many Christians in our
+Young People's Societies and churches are observing a "Quiet Hour"
+daily. In this age of rush and activity we need some special call to go
+apart and be alone with God for a part of each day. Any man or woman who
+does this faithfully and earnestly cannot be more than twenty-four hours
+away from God.
+
+The selections given in this volume were first published in the monthly
+issues of the "_Record of Christian Work_," and were found very helpful
+for devotional purposes. They are also a mine of thoughts, to light up
+the verses quoted. Being of permanent value, it has been thought
+desirable to transfer them from the pages of the magazine to this
+permanent volume.
+
+May they have a helpful ministry, leading many into closer communion
+with God!
+
+ [Illustration: D. L. Moody]
+
+
+
+
+Index of Texts Quoted in This Volume.
+
+ =Genesis=
+ 1: 4, 34
+ 2: 7, 36
+ 3: 3, 71
+ 9, 5
+ 24, 109
+ 4:15, 105
+ 6: 8, 128
+ 12: 1, 18
+ 13:12, 124
+ 15, 37
+ 16: 9, 94
+ 18:17, 96
+ 25: 8, 18, 28
+ 11, 68
+ 28:12, 102
+ 15, 60
+ 16, 69, 102
+ 32: 1, 24
+ 32, 119
+ 33: 1, 111
+
+
+ =Exodus=
+ 2: 3, 32
+ 4:13, 32
+ 14:13, 6
+ 19, 112
+ 20: 3, 81
+ 24:18, 11
+ 28: 2, 12
+ 33:14, 88
+ 34: 2, 25
+
+
+ =Numbers=
+ 9:23, 20
+ 11:14, 51
+ 13:27, 38
+ 28, 38
+
+
+ =Deuteronomy=
+ 1: 2, 26
+ 4: 1, 102
+ 18:14, 80
+ 33:25, 63, 69
+
+
+ =Joshua=
+ 4:21, 20
+ 5:14, 26
+ 23:11, 7
+ 24:15, 114
+
+
+ =Judges=
+ 6:14, 78
+ 8:18, 38
+
+
+ =I. Samuel=
+ 1:10, 128
+ 13, 128
+ 27, 50
+ 28, 50
+ 2: 3, 23
+ 12:24, 43
+
+
+ =II. Samuel=
+ 5:19, 57
+ 22:36, 24
+
+
+ =I. Kings=
+ 2:34, 106
+ 8:12, 94
+ 13, 94
+ 17: 3, 52
+ 10, 113
+
+
+ =II. Kings=
+ 6:17, 11
+ 10: 5, 74
+ 25:30, 39, 113
+
+
+ =I. Chronicles=
+ 4:23, 92
+
+
+ =Job=
+ 5:17, 100
+
+
+ =Psalms=
+ 5: 3, 12
+ 16:11, 110
+ 19:12, 74, 124
+ 21: 4, 90
+ 23: 2, 38
+ 3, 31
+ 25: 4, 12
+ 32: 8, 93
+ 34: 1, 51
+ 19, 6
+ 39: 3, 52
+ 55:22, 58
+ 62: 5, 40
+ 63: 1, 45
+ 65: 3, 112
+ 78:14, 91
+ 90: 1, 114
+ 12, 96
+ 91: 3, 104
+ 9, 119
+ 11, 98
+ 100:2, 95
+ 103:2, 122
+ 4, 122
+ 19, 53
+ 118:14, 6
+ 119:117, 72
+ 134: 1, 17
+ 3, 17
+ 145: 2, 9
+ 16, 17
+
+
+ =Proverbs=
+ 4:18, 34
+ 23, 53
+ 11:25, 121
+ 13:25, 47
+ 16:32, 50
+ 27: 1, 21
+
+
+ =Ecclesiastes=
+ 9:10, 78
+
+
+ =Song of Solomon=
+ 1: 5, 57
+ 6, 37
+ 2: 3, 13
+ 15, 35
+ 3: 1, 30
+ 4:16, 70
+ 7:10, 57
+
+
+ =Isaiah=
+ 6: 5, 51
+ 30:18, 19
+ 32:20, 72
+ 40: 8, 104
+ 31, 10, 31,
+ 42, 80
+ 41:13, 43
+ 14, 21
+ 43: 2, 112
+ 48:10, 94
+ 49: 5, 14
+ 23, 44
+ 50:10, 105
+ 56: 2, 72
+
+
+ =Jeremiah=
+ 18: 4, 113
+ 22:21, 104
+
+
+ =Ezekiel=
+ 12: 8, 36
+ 34:26, 85
+ 36:37, 88
+ 37: 3, 101
+
+
+ =Daniel=
+ 5: 1, 122
+ 6:20, 15
+ 9: 9, 89
+ 10: 8, 109
+
+
+ =Hosea=
+ 6: 3, 18
+
+
+ =Jonah=
+ 1:11, 125
+
+
+ =Micah=
+ 7: 8, 100
+
+
+ =Zechariah=
+ 4:10, 64, 116
+ 13: 1, 56
+
+
+ =Malachi=
+ 3: 6, 85
+ 18, 123
+
+
+ =Matthew=
+ 2:10, 100
+ 13, 106
+ 5:14, 45, 55
+ 16, 106
+ 45, 35
+ 48, 65
+ 6: 6, 95
+ 32, 75
+ 33, 30
+ 8: 6, 72
+ 10: 8, 68
+ 42, 52
+ 14:14, 81
+ 23, 81
+ 22, 59
+ 15:28, 44
+ 20:18, 92
+ 28, 93
+ 25:21, 59
+ 26, 59
+ 24-26, 44
+ 26:39, 15
+ 40, 40
+ 27:32, 54
+ 28:16, 107
+ 18, 107
+ 19, 107
+ 20, 41
+
+
+ =Mark=
+ 2: 3, 122
+ 5:36, 99
+ 6:41, 123
+ 7:34, 46
+ 10:17, 120
+ 13:34, 22
+ 14:41, 65
+ 50, 121
+
+
+ =Luke=
+ 2:10, 107
+ 13, 126
+ 14, 126
+ 5: 3, 77
+ 5, 85
+ 7: 5, 19
+ 10:29, 115
+ 39, 98
+ 14:10, 126
+ 11, 49
+ 27, 62
+ 16:10, 8
+ 24:16, 31
+ 18, 13
+ 31, 32
+ 34, 47
+
+
+ =John=
+ 1: 4, 45
+ 36, 71
+ 37, 71
+ 45, 23
+ 46, 23
+ 2:3-5, 48, 76
+ 11, 91
+ 3: 8, 23
+ 4: 6, 67
+ 8, 67
+ 39, 67
+ 34, 40, 70
+ 6:57, 29
+ 8: 9, 110
+ 29, 27
+ 11: 9, 14
+ 21-24, 58
+ 12: 4, 68
+ 6, 6
+ 20:21, 56
+ 25, 124
+ 27, 124
+ 29, 9
+ 21: 3, 37
+ 10, 22
+ 12, 101
+
+
+ =Acts=
+ 1: 3, 67
+ 4, 61, 97
+ 8, 28, 60
+ 2: 1, 61
+ 4, 61
+ 41, 47
+ 4:10, 64
+ 13, 79, 99
+ 6: 5, 20
+ 8:21, 64
+ 19:38, 94
+ 11:26, 123
+ 13: 2, 64
+ 47, 60
+ 14:8-10, 57
+ 17: 6, 63, 119
+ 20:19, 82
+ 24, 119
+ 28, 90
+ 27:23-25, 42
+
+
+ =Romans=
+ 5: 3, 46
+ 6: 4, 15
+ 7:11, 75
+ 8:28, 11, 31
+ 13:11, 89
+ 15:13, 90
+
+
+ =I. Corinthians=
+ 1: 7, 30
+ 28, 95
+ 3:10, 69
+ 7:32, 87
+ 10:12, 76
+ 11: 1, 82
+ 13:13, 124
+ 15:58, 46
+
+
+ =II. Corinthians=
+ 1:21, 116
+ 22, 116
+ 13:5, 114
+ 17, 65
+
+
+ =Galatians=
+ 1: 4, 55
+ 2:20, 96, 103,
+ 115
+ 3:27, 58
+ 6: 2, 33, 39
+ 7, 25
+ 9, 88
+ 14, 127
+
+
+ =Ephesians=
+ 1:13, 21
+ 17, 109
+ 18, 109
+ 2:10, 78, 84
+ 12, 120
+ 21, 16
+ 4:15, 113
+ 5:8, 7, 77
+ 15, 32
+
+
+ =Philippians=
+ 1:21, 27
+ 2:12 39, 41,
+ 73
+ 13, 39, 41,
+ 73
+ 3:13, 24
+ 14, 24
+ 4: 6, 42
+ 12, 48
+ 13, 55, 63
+ 19, 8
+
+
+ =Colossians=
+ 1:27, 96
+ 3: 2, 46, 78
+ 3, 75
+ 11, 16
+ 15, 87
+ 16, 118
+ 17, 54
+ 24, 87
+ 4: 2, 16, 76,
+ 126
+
+
+ =I. Thessalonians=
+ 5: 6, 66
+ 8, 103
+ 19, 27
+ 24, 118
+
+
+ =I. Timothy=
+ 1:15, 73
+ 17, 73
+
+
+ =II. Timothy=
+ 1:12, 61
+ 2: 3, 62
+ 12, 53, 86
+ 15, 60
+
+
+ =Hebrews=
+ 4: 9, 13
+ 6:12, 125
+ 19, 128
+ 7:25, 127
+ 10: 5, 27
+ 19, 41
+ 22, 41
+ 32, 23, 118
+ 11: 7, 83
+ 8, 22
+ 12: 1, 79
+ 2, 79
+ 2, 14
+ 6, 47, 107,
+ 117
+ 13: 5, 118
+
+
+ =James=
+ 1: 2, 8
+ 4, 72
+ 23, 125
+ 25, 125
+ 4: 4, 127
+ 14, 123, 125
+
+
+ =I. Peter=
+ 1:16, 96
+ 21, 121
+ 23, 86
+ 2: 5, 20
+ 21, 81
+ 5: 5, 111
+
+
+ =II. Peter=
+ 1: 5, 70
+ 21, 121
+ 3:18, 44, 74
+
+
+ =I. John=
+ 1: 7, 48
+ 9, 26
+ 2: 6, 18
+ 15, 17, 87
+ 3: 2, 91
+ 4:14, 88
+ 16, 61, 98
+ 18, 42
+ 5: 4, 97
+
+
+ =Jude=
+ 21, 28
+
+
+ =Revelation=
+ 1:10, 117
+ 11, 117
+ 17, 66
+ 2:10, 105
+ 3:19, 20
+ 4: 8, 30
+ 7: 9, 34
+ 22:12, 5
+ 14, 109
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: JANUARY]
+
+
+=January 1st.=
+
+ _Come up in the morning . . . and present thyself . . .
+ to me in the top of the mount. Ex. xxxiv. 2._
+
+My Father, I am coming. Nothing on the mean plain shall keep me away
+from the holy heights. Help me to climb fast, and keep Thou my foot,
+lest it fall upon the hard rock! At Thy bidding I come, so Thou wilt not
+mock my heart. Bring with Thee honey from heaven, yea, milk and wine,
+and oil for my soul's good, and stay the sun in his course, or the time
+will be too short in which to look upon Thy face, and to hear Thy gentle
+voice.
+
+Morning on the mount! It will make me strong and glad all the rest of
+the day so well begun.--_Joseph Parker._
+
+
+=January 2nd.=
+
+ _My reward is with me. Rev. xxii. 12._
+
+We are to be rewarded, not only for work done, but for burdens borne,
+and I am not sure but that the brightest rewards will be for those who
+have borne burdens without murmuring. On that day He will take the lily,
+that has been growing so long among thorns, and lift it up to be the
+glory and wonder of all the universe; and the fragrance of that lily
+will draw forth ineffable praises from all the hosts of heaven.--_Andrew
+Bonar._
+
+
+=January 3rd.=
+
+ _Where art thou? Gen. iii. 9._
+
+Art thou hiding thyself away from Him who would send thee forth to do
+His own blessed work in His own way? Oh, let me say to thee this
+morning, "The Lord hath need of thee." It may seem to be only a little
+thing He has for you to do, but it is an important one. He has "need of
+thee." Turn not thy back upon Him; put not thyself out of the way of
+being employed by Him; do not begin by laying down laws for thyself as
+to what thou wilt do and what thou wilt not do; but cry out from the
+very depth of thy heart, "Here am I, send me,"--_W. Hay Aitken._
+
+
+=January 4th.=
+
+ _Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the
+ Lord delivereth him out of them all. Psa. xxxiv. 19._
+
+All the afflictions of the righteous open out into something glorious.
+The prisoner is not merely delivered, but he finds an angel waiting for
+him at the door. And with every deliverance comes a specific blessing.
+One angel is named faith; another, love; another, joy; another,
+longsuffering; another, gentleness; another, goodness; another,
+meekness; another, temperance; another, peace. Each of these graces
+says, "We have come out of great tribulation."--_G. Bowen._
+
+
+=January 5th.=
+
+ _The Lord is my . . . song. Psa. cxviii. 14._
+
+Let us think of God Himself becoming our song. This is the fulness and
+perfection of knowing God: so to know Him that He Himself becomes our
+delight; so to know Him that praise is sweetest, and fullest, and
+freshest, and gladdest, when we sing of Him. He who has learned this
+blessed secret carries the golden key of heaven--nay, he hath fetched
+heaven down to earth, and need not envy the angels now.--_Mark Guy
+Pearse._
+
+
+=January 6th.=
+
+ _Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of
+ the Lord. Ex. xiv. 13._
+
+Often God seems to place His children in positions of profound
+difficulty--leading them into a wedge from which there is no escape;
+contriving a situation which no human judgment would have permitted, had
+it been previously consulted. The very cloud conducts them thither. You
+may be thus involved at this very hour. It does seem perplexing and very
+serious to the last degree; but it is perfectly right. The issue will
+more than justify Him who has brought you hither. It is a platform for
+the display of His almighty grace and power. He will not only deliver
+you, but in doing so He will give you a lesson that you will never
+forget; and to which, in many a psalm and song in after days, you will
+revert. You will never be able to thank God enough for having done just
+as He has.--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+=January 7th.=
+
+ _Now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of
+ light. Eph. v. 8._
+
+The influence we exert in the world is created by our relationship to
+Jesus Christ; and our relationship to Jesus Christ is revealed by our
+influence.--_Selected._
+
+
+=January 8th.=
+
+ _Take good heed therefore unto your souls. Josh.
+ xxiii. 11._ (_Margin._)
+
+Gold cannot be used for currency as long as it is mixed with the quartz
+and rock in which it lies imbedded. So your soul is useless to God till
+taken out from sin and earthliness and selfishness, in which it lies
+buried. By the regenerating power of the Spirit you must be separated
+unto Christ, stamped with His image and superscription, and made into a
+divine currency, which shall bear His likeness among men. The Christian
+is, so to speak, the circulating medium of Christ, the coin of the realm
+by whom the great transactions of mercy and grace to a lost world are
+carried on. As the currency stands for the gold, so does the Christian
+stand for Christ, representing His good and acceptable will.--_A. J.
+Gordon._
+
+
+=January 9th.=
+
+ _He that is faithful in that which is least, is
+ faithful also in much. Luke xvi. 10._
+
+The least action of life can be as surely done from the loftiest motive
+as the highest and noblest. Faithfulness measures acts as God measures
+them. True conscientiousness deals with our duties as God deals with
+them. Duty is duty, conscience is conscience, right is right, and wrong
+is wrong, whatever sized type they be printed in. "Large" and "small"
+are not words for the vocabulary of conscience. It knows only two
+words--right and wrong.--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=January 10th.=
+
+ _My God shall supply all your need according to His
+ riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Phil. iv. 19._
+
+What a source--"God"! What a standard--"His riches in glory"! What a
+channel--"Christ Jesus"! It is your sweet privilege to place _all your
+need_ over against _His riches_, and lose sight of the former in the
+presence of the latter. His exhaustless treasury is thrown open to you,
+in all the love of His heart; go and draw upon it, in the artless
+simplicity of faith, and you will never have occasion to look to a
+creature-stream, or lean on a creature-prop.--_C. H. M._
+
+
+=January 11th.=
+
+ _Count it all joy when ye fall into divers
+ temptations. James i. 2._
+
+We cannot be losers by trusting God, for He is honored by faith, and
+most honored when faith discerns His love and truth behind a thick cloud
+of His ways and providence. Happy those who are thus tried! Let us only
+be clear of unbelief and a guilty conscience. We shall hide ourselves in
+the rock and pavilion of the Lord, sheltered beneath the wings of
+everlasting love till all calamities be overpast.--_Selected._
+
+
+=January 12th.=
+
+ _Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have
+ believed. John xx. 29._
+
+The seen are shadows: the substance is found in the unseen. . . . No
+doubt, in Christ, the foundation of our faith is unseen; but so is that
+of yonder tower that lifts its tall erect form among the waves over
+which it throws a saving light. It appears to rest on the rolling
+billows; but, beneath these, invisible and immovable, lies the solid
+rock on which it stands secure; and when the hurricane roars above, and
+breakers roar below, I could go calmly to sleep in that lone sea tower.
+Founded on a rock, and safer than the proudest palace that stands on the
+sandy, surf-beaten shore, it cannot be moved. Still less the Rock of
+Ages! Who trusts in that is fit for death, prepared for judgment, ready
+for the last day's sounding trumpet, since, "The Lord redeemeth the soul
+of His servants, and none of them that trust in Him shall be
+desolate."--_Guthrie._
+
+
+=January 13th.=
+
+ _Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much
+ fruit. John xv. 8._
+
+What a possibility, what an inspiration, that we can enhance the glory
+of "our Father"! Our hearts leap at the thought.
+
+How can this be done? By bearing "leaves,"--a _profession_ of love for
+Him? No. By bearing _some_ fruit? No. "That ye bear _much_ fruit." In
+the abundance of the yield is the joy, the glory of the husbandman. We
+should, therefore, aim to be extraordinary, "hundred-fold" Christians,
+satisfied with none but the largest yield. Our lives should be packed
+with good deeds. Then at harvest time we can say, "Father, I have
+glorified Thee on the earth!"--_W. Jennings._
+
+
+=January 14th.=
+
+ _Every day will I bless Thee; and I will praise Thy
+ name for ever and ever. Psa. cxlv. 2._
+
+There is a very beautiful device by which the Japanese are accustomed to
+express their wishes for their friends. It is the figure of a drum in
+which the birds have built their nest. The story told of it is that once
+there lived a good king, so anxiously concerned for the welfare of his
+people that at the palace gate he set a drum, and whoever had any wrong
+to be redressed or any want, should beat the drum, and at once, by day
+or night, the king would grant the suppliant an audience and relief. But
+throughout the land there reigned such prosperity and contentment that
+none needed to appeal for anything, and the birds built their nests
+within it and filled it with the music of their song.
+
+Such gracious access is granted to us even by the King of Heaven, and
+day and night His ready hearing and His help are within the reach of all
+that come to Him; but of all men most blessed are they who have found on
+earth a blessedness in which all want is forgotten, and trust rests so
+assured of safety in the Father's care that prayer gives place to
+ceaseless praise. They _rejoice in the Lord alway_.--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+=January 15th.=
+
+ _They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall
+ run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not
+ faint.--Isa. xl. 31._
+
+This, my soul, is the triumph of thy being--to be able to _walk_ with
+God! Flight belongs to the young soul; it is the _romance_ of religion.
+To run without weariness belongs to the _lofty_ soul; it is the _beauty_
+of religion. But to walk and not faint belongs to the _perfect_ soul; it
+is the _power_ of religion.
+
+Canst thou walk in white through the stained thoroughfares of men? Canst
+thou touch the vile and polluted ones of earth and retain thy garments
+pure? Canst thou meet in contact with the sinful and be thyself
+undefiled? _Then_ thou hast surpassed the flight of the eagle!--_George
+Matheson._
+
+
+=January 16th.=
+
+ _And Moses was in the mount forty days and forty
+ nights. Ex. xxiv. 18._
+
+The life of fellowship with God cannot be built up in a day. It begins
+with the habitual reference of all to Him, hour by hour, as Moses did in
+Egypt. But it moves on to more and longer periods of communion; and it
+finds its consummation and bliss in days and nights of intercession and
+waiting and holy intercourse.--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+=January 17th.=
+
+ _Elisha said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he
+ may see. 2 Kings vi. 17._
+
+This is the prayer we need to pray for ourselves and for one another,
+"Lord, open our eyes that we may see"; for the world all around us, as
+well as around the prophet, is full of God's horses and chariots,
+waiting to carry us to places of glorious victory. And when our eyes are
+thus opened, we shall see in all the events of life, whether great or
+small, whether joyful or sad, a "chariot" for our souls. Everything that
+comes to us becomes a chariot the moment we treat it as such; and, on
+the other hand, even the smallest trial may be a Juggernaut car to crush
+us into misery or despair if we so consider them. It lies with each of
+us to choose which they shall be. It all depends, not upon what these
+events are, but upon how we take them. If we lie down under them, and
+let them roll over us and crush us, they become Juggernaut cars, but if
+we climb up into them, as into a car of victory, and make them carry us
+triumphantly onward and upward, they become the chariots of
+God.--_Smith._
+
+
+=January 18th.=
+
+ _All things work together for good to them that love
+ God. Rom. viii. 28._
+
+In one thousand trials it is not five hundred of them that work for the
+believer's good, but nine hundred and ninety-nine of them, AND ONE
+BESIDE.--_George Mueller._
+
+
+=January 19th.=
+
+ _Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron. Ex. xxviii.
+ 2._
+
+Have we no garments of blue, and purple, and beautiful suggestiveness?
+We have garments of praise; we are clothed with the Lord Jesus. And have
+we no ornaments? The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is, in the
+sight of God, of great price. And have we no golden bells? We have the
+golden bells of holy actions. Our words are bells, our actions are
+bells, our purposes are bells. Whenever we move, our motion is thus
+understood to be a motion towards holy places, holy deeds, holy
+character.--_Joseph Parker._
+
+
+=January 20th.=
+
+ _My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in
+ the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and
+ will look up. Psa v. 3._
+
+The morning is the gate of the day, and should be well guarded with
+prayer. It is one end of the thread on which the day's actions are
+strung, and should be well knotted with devotion. If we felt more the
+majesty of life we should be more careful of its mornings. He who rushes
+from his bed to his business and waiteth not to worship is as foolish as
+though he had not put on his clothes, or cleansed his face, and as
+unwise as though he dashed into battle without arms or armor. Be it ours
+to bathe in the softly flowing river of communion with God, before the
+heat of the wilderness and the burden of the way begin to oppress
+us.--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=January 21st.=
+
+ _Show me Thy ways, O Lord; teach me Thy paths. Psa.
+ xxv. 4._
+
+There is a path in which every child of God is to walk, and in which
+alone God can accompany him.--_Denham Smith._
+
+
+=January 22nd.=
+
+ _There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of
+ God. Heb. iv. 9._
+
+How sweet the music of this first heavenly chime floating across the
+waters of death from the towers of the New Jerusalem. Pilgrim, faint
+under thy long and arduous pilgrimage, hear it! It is REST. Soldier,
+carrying still upon thee blood and dust of battle, hear it! It is REST.
+Voyager, tossed on the waves of sin and sorrow, driven hither and
+thither on the world's heaving ocean of vicissitude, hear it! The haven
+is in sight; the very waves that are breaking on thee seem to
+murmur--"_So He giveth His beloved_ REST." It is the long-drawn sigh of
+existence at last answered. The toil and travail of earth's protracted
+week is at an end. The calm of its unbroken Sabbath is begun. Man, weary
+man, has found at last the long-sought-for _rest_ in the bosom of his
+God!--_Macduff._
+
+
+=January 23rd.=
+
+ _Under His shadow. Song of Sol. ii. 3._
+
+Frances Ridley Havergal says: I seem to see four pictures suggested by
+that: under the shadow of a rock in a weary plain; under the shadow of a
+tree; closer still, under the shadow of His wing; nearest and closest,
+in the shadow of His hand. Surely that hand must be the pierced hand,
+that may oftentimes press us sorely, and yet evermore encircling,
+upholding and shadowing!
+
+
+=January 24th.=
+
+ _He made as though He would have gone further. Luke
+ xxiv. 28._
+
+Is not God always acting thus? He comes to us by His Holy Spirit as He
+did to these two disciples. He speaks to us through the preaching of the
+Gospel, through the Word of God, through the various means of grace and
+the providential circumstances of life; and having thus spoken, He makes
+as though He would go further. If the ear be opened to His voice and
+the heart to His Spirit, the prayer will then go up, "Lord, abide with
+me." But if that voice makes no impression, then He passes on, as He has
+done thousands of times, leaving the heart at each time harder than
+before, and the ear more closed to the Spirit's call.--_F. Whitfield._
+
+
+=January 25th.=
+
+ _My God shall be my strength. Isa. xlix. 5._
+
+Oh, do not pray for easy lives! Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for
+tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then
+the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle.
+Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which
+has come in you by the grace of God.--_Phillips Brooks._
+
+
+=January 26th.=
+
+ _Despising the shame. Heb. xii. 2._
+
+And how is that to be done? In two ways. Go up the mountain, and the
+things in the plain will look very small; the higher you rise the more
+insignificant they will seem. Hold fellowship with God, and the
+threatening foes here will seem very, very unformidable. Another way is,
+pull up the curtain and gaze on what is behind it. The low foot-hills
+that lie at the base of some Alpine country may look high when seen from
+the plain, as long as the snowy summits are wrapped in mist; but when a
+little puff of wind comes and clears away the fog from the lofty peaks,
+nobody looks at the little green hills in front. So the world's
+hindrances and the world's difficulties and cares look very lofty till
+the cloud lifts. But when we see the great white summits, everything
+lower does not seem so very high after all. Look to Jesus, and that will
+dwarf the difficulties.--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=January 27th.=
+
+ _Are there not twelve hours in the day? John xi. 9._
+
+The very fact of a Christian being here, and not in heaven, is a proof
+that some work awaits him.--_William Arnot._
+
+
+=January 28th.=
+
+ _Not as I will, but as Thou wilt. Matt. xxvi. 39._
+
+There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will
+of God.--_Faber._
+
+
+=January 29th.=
+
+ _The living God. Dan. vi. 20._
+
+How many times we find this expression in the Scriptures, and yet it is
+just this very thing that we are so prone to lose sight of! We know it
+is written "_the living God_"; but in our daily life there is scarcely
+anything we practically so much lose sight of as the fact that God is
+THE LIVING GOD; that He is now whatever He was three or four thousand
+years since; that He has the same sovereign power, the same saving love
+towards those who love and serve Him as ever He had, and that He will do
+for them now what He did for others two, three, four thousand years ago,
+simply because He is the living God, the unchanging One. Oh, how
+therefore we should confide in Him, and in our darkest moments never
+lose sight of the fact that He _is_ still and ever _will be_ THE LIVING
+GOD!--_George Mueller._
+
+
+=January 30th.=
+
+ _Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into
+ death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead
+ by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
+ walk in newness of life. Rom. vi. 4._
+
+That is the life we are called upon to live, and that is the life it is
+our privilege to lead; for God never gives us a call without its being a
+privilege, and He never gives us the privilege to come up higher without
+stretching out to us His hand to lift us up. Come up higher and higher
+into the realities and glories of the resurrection life, knowing that
+your life is hid with Christ in God. Shake yourself loose of every
+incumbrance, turn your back on every defilement, give yourself over
+like clay to the hands of the potter, that He may stamp upon you the
+fulness of His own resurrection glory, that you, beholding as in a
+mirror the glory of the Lord, may be changed from glory to glory as by
+the Spirit of the Lord.--_W. Hay Aitken._
+
+
+=January 31st.=
+
+ _Christ is all, and in all. Col. iii. 11._
+
+ The _service_ of Christ is the _business_ of my life.
+ The _will_ of Christ is the _law_ of my life.
+ The _presence_ of Christ is the _joy_ of my life.
+ The _glory_ of Christ is the _crown_ of my life.--_Selected._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+=February 1st.=
+
+ _Continue in prayer. Col. iv. 2._
+
+Dost thou want nothing? Then I fear thou dost not know thy poverty. Hast
+thou no mercy to ask of God? Then may the Lord's mercy show thee thy
+misery. A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of
+the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of
+the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus.--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=February 2nd.=
+
+ _In whom all the building, fitly framed together,
+ groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. Eph. ii. 21._
+
+The life-tabernacle is a wondrous building; there is room for workers of
+all kinds in the uprearing of its mysterious and glorious walls. If we
+cannot do the greatest work, we may do the least. Our heaven will come
+out of the realization of the fact that it was God's tabernacle we were
+building, and under God's blessing that we were working.--_Joseph
+Parker._
+
+
+=February 3rd.=
+
+ _Love not the world. 1 John ii. 15._
+
+Love it not, and yet love it. Love it with the love of Him who gave His
+Son to die for it. Love it with the love of Him who shed His blood for
+it. Love it with the love of angels, who rejoice in its conversion. Love
+it to do it good, giving your tears to its sufferings, your pity to its
+sorrows, your wealth to its wants, your prayers to its miseries, and to
+its fields of charity, and philanthropy, and Christian piety, your
+powers and hours of labor. You cannot live without affecting it, or
+being affected by it. You will make the world better, or it will make
+you worse.
+
+God help you by His grace and Holy Spirit so to live in the world as to
+live above it, and look beyond it; and so to love it that when you leave
+it, you may leave it better than you found it.--_Guthrie._
+
+
+=February 4th.=
+
+ _Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of
+ every living thing. Psa. cxlv. 16._
+
+Desire, it is a dainty word! It were much that He should satisfy the
+_need_, the _want_; but He goeth far beyond that. Pity is moved to meet
+our need; duty may sometimes look after our wants; but to satisfy the
+_desire_ implies a tender watchfulness, a sweet and gracious knowledge
+of us, an eagerness of blessing. God is never satisfied until He has
+satisfied our desires.--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+=February 5th.=
+
+ _Ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the
+ house of the Lord. . . . The Lord that made heaven and
+ earth bless thee out of Zion. Psa. cxxxiv. 1, 3._
+
+If I would know the love of my friend, I must see what it can do in the
+winter. So with the divine love. It is very easy for me to worship in
+the summer sunshine, when the melodies of life are in the air and the
+fruits of life are on the tree. But let the song of the bird cease, and
+the fruit of the tree fall; and will my heart still go on to sing? Will
+I stand in God's house by night? Will I love Him in His own night? Will
+I watch with Him even one hour in His Gethsemane? Will I help to bear
+His cross up the Via Dolorosa? My love has come to Him in His
+humiliation. My faith has found Him in His lowliness. My heart has
+recognized His majesty through His mean disguise, and I know at last
+that I desire not the gift, but the Giver. When I can stand in His house
+by night, I have accepted Him for Himself alone.--_George Matheson._
+
+
+=February 6th.=
+
+ _He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so
+ to walk even as He walked. 1 John ii. 6._
+
+The preaching that this world needs most is the _sermons in shoes_ that
+are walking with Jesus Christ.--_Selected._
+
+
+=February 7th.=
+
+ _Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord.
+ Hosea vi. 3._
+
+The Lord has brought us into the pathway of the knowledge of Him, and
+bids us pursue that path through all its strange meanderings until it
+opens out upon the plain where God's throne is. Our life is a following
+on to know the Lord. We marvel at some of the experiences through which
+we are called to pass, but afterwards we see that they afforded us some
+new knowledge of our Lord. . . . We have not to wait for some brighter
+opportunity; but by improvement of the present are to build for
+ourselves a bridge to that future.--_G Bowen._
+
+
+=February 8th.=
+
+ _Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
+ and from thy father's house. Gen. xii. 1._
+
+ _Abraham . . . was gathered to his people. Gen. xxv. 8._
+
+After all communion we dwell as upon islands, dotted over a great
+archipelago, each upon his little rock with the sea dashing between us;
+but the time comes when, if our hearts are set upon that great Lord
+whose presence makes us one, there shall be no more sea and all the
+isolated rocks shall be parts of a great continent . . . If we cultivate
+that sense of detachment from the present and of having our true
+affinities in the unseen, if we dwell here as strangers because our
+citizenship is in heaven, then death will not drag us away from our
+associates nor hunt us into a lonely land, but will bring us where
+closer bonds shall knit the "sweet societies" together, and the sheep
+shall couch close by one another because all gathered round the one
+Shepherd. Then many a tie shall be re-woven, and the solitary wanderer
+meet again the dear ones whom he had "loved long since and lost
+awhile."--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=February 9th.=
+
+ _Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious
+ unto you. Isa. xxx. 18._
+
+This is God's way. In the darkest hours of the night His tread draws
+near across the billows. As the day of execution is breaking, the angel
+comes to Peter's cell. When the scaffold for Mordecai is complete, the
+royal sleeplessness leads to a reaction in favor of the threatened race.
+
+Ah, soul, it may have come to the worst with thee ere thou art
+delivered; but thou wilt be! God may keep thee waiting, but He will ever
+be mindful of His covenant, and will appear to fulfil His inviolable
+word.--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+=February 10th.=
+
+ _He loveth our nation and he hath built us a
+ synagogue. Luke vii. 5._
+
+Marble and granite are perishable monuments, and their inscriptions may
+be seldom read. _Carve your names on human hearts_; they alone are
+immortal!--_Theodore Cuyler._
+
+
+=February 11th.=
+
+ _As many as I love I . . . chasten. Rev. iii. 19._
+
+I once saw a dark shadow resting on the bare side of a hill. Seeking its
+cause I saw a little cloud, bright as the light, floating in the clear
+blue above. Thus it is with our sorrow. It may be dark and cheerless
+here on earth; yet look above and you shall see it to be but a shadow of
+His brightness whose name is Love.--_Dean Alford._
+
+
+=February 12th.=
+
+ _What means these stones? Josh. iv. 21._
+
+ _Ye also as living stones. 1 Pet. ii. 5. (R. V.)_
+
+There should be something so remarkable, so peculiar about the life and
+conversation of a Christian that men should be compelled to ask, "What
+does this mean?". . . . Is there anything in your character, words, and
+habits of life so different from the world around you that men are
+involuntarily compelled to ask themselves or others, "What does this
+mean?" Not that there is to be a forced singularity, a peculiarity for
+the sake of being peculiar; that were merely to copy the pharisaism of
+ancient days. . . . Oh, that we might realize that this is the purpose
+for which God sends us into the world, as He sent His only begotten
+Son!--_S. A. Blackwood._
+
+
+=February 13th.=
+
+ _All . . . saw his face as it had been the face of an
+ angel Acts vi. 15._
+
+The face is made every day by its morning prayer, and by its morning
+look out of windows which open upon heaven.--_Joseph Parker._
+
+
+=February 14th.=
+
+ _At the commandment of the Lord they rested in the
+ tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they
+ journeyed. Num. ix. 23._
+
+This is the secret of peace and calm elevation. If an Israelite, in the
+desert, had taken it into his head to make some movement independent of
+Jehovah; if he took it upon him to move when the crowd was at rest, or
+to halt while the crowd was moving, we can easily see what the result
+would have been. And so it will ever be with us. If we move when we
+ought to rest, or rest when we ought to move, we shall not have the
+divine presence with us.--_C. H. M._
+
+
+=February 15th.=
+
+ _In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed
+ with that holy Spirit of promise. Eph. i. 13._
+
+The Lord puts a seal upon His own, that everybody may know them. The
+sealing in your case is the Spirit producing in you likeness to the
+Lord. The holier you become, the seal is the more distinct and plain,
+the more evident to every passer-by, for then will men take knowledge of
+you that you have been with Jesus.--_Andrew Bonar._
+
+
+=February 16th.=
+
+ _Boast not thyself of to-morrow. Prov. xxvii. 1._
+
+The only preparation for the morrow is the right use of to-day. The
+stone in the hands of the builder must be put in its place and fitted to
+receive another. The morrow comes for naught, if to-day is not heeded.
+Neglect not the call that comes to thee this day, for such neglect is
+nothing else than boasting thyself of to-morrow.--_G. Bowen._
+
+
+=February 17th.=
+
+ _I will help thee, saith the Lord. Isa. xli. 14._
+
+O my soul, is not this enough? Dost thou need more strength than the
+omnipotence of the united Trinity? Dost thou want more wisdom than
+exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more
+power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit? Bring hither
+thine empty pitcher! Surely this well will fill it. Haste, gather up
+thy wants, and bring them here--thine emptiness, thy woes, thy needs.
+Behold, this river of God is full for thy supply; what canst thou desire
+beside? Go forth, my soul, in this thy might. The eternal God is thine
+helper!--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=February 18th.=
+
+ _To every man his work. Mark xiii. 34._
+
+He does the most for God's great world who does the best in his own
+little world.--_Selected._
+
+
+=February 19th.=
+
+ _Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. John xxi.
+ 10._
+
+Why was this? Oh, the Lord wants us to minister to Him as well as to
+receive from Him, and our service finds its true end when it becomes
+food for our dear Lord. He was pleased to feed on their fish while they
+were feeding on His. It was the double banquet of which He speaks in the
+tender message of revelation, "I will sup with him, and he with
+Me."--_A. B. Simpson._
+
+
+=February 20th.=
+
+ _By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a
+ place which he should after receive for an
+ inheritance, obeyed. Heb. xi. 8._
+
+Whither he went, he knew not; it was enough for him to know that he went
+with God. He leant not so much upon the promises as upon the Promiser.
+He looked not on the difficulties of his lot, but on the King, eternal,
+immortal, invisible, the only wise God, who had deigned to appoint his
+course, and would certainly vindicate Himself. O glorious faith! This is
+thy work, these are thy possibilities: contentment to sail with sealed
+orders, because of unwavering confidence in the love and wisdom of the
+Lord High Admiral: willinghood to rise up, leave all, and follow Christ,
+because of the glad assurance that earth's best cannot bear comparison
+with heaven's least.--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+=February 21st.=
+
+ _The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions
+ are weighed. 1 Sam. ii. 3._
+
+God does not _measure_ what we bring to Him. He _weighs_ it.--_Mark Guy
+Pearse._
+
+
+=February 22nd.=
+
+ _After ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of
+ afflictions. Heb. x. 32._
+
+Our boldness for God _before the world_ must always be the result of
+individual dealing with God _in secret_. Our victories over self, and
+sin, and the world, are always first fought where no eye sees but
+God's. . . . If we have not these _secret_ conflicts, well may we not
+have any _open_ ones. The _outward_ absence of conflict betrays the
+_inward_ sleep of the soul.--_F. Whitfield._
+
+
+=February 23d.=
+
+ _Philip findeth Nathaniel and saith unto him, We have
+ found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets
+ did write. . . . Come and see. John i. 45, 46._
+
+The next thing to knowing that "we have found Him" is to find someone
+else, and say, "Come and see."--_Frances Ridley Havergal._
+
+
+=February 24th.=
+
+ _The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest
+ the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh
+ and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of
+ the Spirit. John iii. 8._
+
+We know that the wind listeth to blow where there is a vacuum. If you
+find a tremendous rush of wind, you know that somewhere there is an
+empty space. I am perfectly sure about this fact: if we could expel all
+pride, vanity, self-righteousness, self-seeking, desire for applause,
+honor, and promotion--if by some divine power we should be utterly
+emptied of all that, the Spirit would come as a rushing mighty wind to
+fill us.--_A. J. Gordon._
+
+
+=February 25th.=
+
+ _Thy gentleness hath made me great. 2 Sam. xxii. 36._
+
+The gentleness of Christ is the comeliest ornament that a Christian can
+wear.--_William Arnot._
+
+
+=February 26th.=
+
+ _Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
+ Gen. xxxii. 1._
+
+It is in the path where God has bade us walk that we shall find the
+angels around us. We may meet them, indeed, on paths of our own
+choosing, but it will be the sort of angel that Balaam met, with a sword
+in his hand, mighty and beautiful, but wrathful too; and we had better
+not front him! But the friendly helpers, the emissaries of God's love,
+the apostles of His grace, do not haunt the roads that we make for
+ourselves.--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=February 27th.=
+
+ _I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh
+ unto the Father but by me. John xiv. 6._
+
+Heaven often seems distant and unknown, but if He who made the road
+thither is our guide, we need not fear to lose the way. We do not want
+to see far ahead--only far enough to discern Him and trace His
+footsteps. . . . They who follow Christ, even through darkness, will
+surely reach the Father.--_Henry Van Dyke._
+
+
+=February 28th.=
+
+ _Forgetting those things which are behind . . . I press
+ toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
+ God in Christ Jesus. Phil. iii. 13, 14._
+
+It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is to be
+done, but by making the best of what we are. It is not by complaining
+that we have not the right tools, but by using well the tools we have.
+What we are, and where we are, is God's providential arrangement--God's
+doing, though it may be man's misdoing. Life is a series of mistakes,
+and he is not the best Christian who makes the fewest false steps. He is
+the best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of
+mistakes.--_F. W. Robertson._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MARCH]
+
+
+=March 1st.=
+
+ _Come up in the morning . . . and present thyself unto
+ me in the top of the mount. Ex. xxxiv. 2._
+
+The morning is the time fixed for my meeting the Lord. This very word
+_morning_ is as a cluster of rich grapes. Let me crush them, and drink
+the sacred wine.
+
+In the morning! Then God means me to be at my best in strength and hope.
+I have not to climb in my weakness. In the night I have buried
+yesterday's fatigue, and in the morning I take a new lease of energy.
+
+Sweet morning! There is hope in its music. Blessed is the day whose
+morning is sanctified! Successful is the day whose first victory was won
+in prayer! Holy is the day whose dawn finds thee on the top of the
+mount! Health is established in the morning. Wealth is won in the
+morning. The light is brightest in the morning. "Wake, psaltery and
+harp; I myself will awake early."--_Joseph Parker._
+
+
+=March 2nd.=
+
+ _Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
+ Gal. vi. 7._
+
+The most common actions of life, its every day and hour, are invested
+with the highest grandeur, when we think how they extend their issues
+into eternity. Our hands are now sowing seeds for that great harvest. We
+shall meet again all we are doing and have done. The graves shall give
+up their dead, and from the tombs of oblivion the past shall give up all
+that it holds in keeping, to bear true witness for or against
+us.--_Guthrie._
+
+
+=March 3rd.=
+
+ _There are eleven days' journey from Horeb, by the way
+ of mount Seir, unto Kadesh-barnea. Deut. i. 2._
+
+Eleven days, and yet it took them forty years! How was this? Alas! we
+need not travel far for the answer. It is only too like ourselves. How
+slowly we get over the ground! What windings and turnings! How often we
+have to go back and travel over the same ground, again and again. We are
+slow travelers because we are slow learners. Our God is a faithful and
+wise, as well as a gracious and patient Teacher. He will not permit us
+to pass cursorily over our lessons. Sometimes, perhaps, we think we have
+mastered a lesson and we attempt to move on to another, but our wise
+Teacher knows better, and He sees the need of deeper ploughing. He will
+not have us mere theorists or smatterers; He will keep us, if need be,
+year after year at our scales until we learn to sing.--=C. H. M.=
+
+
+=March 4th.=
+
+ _If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
+ forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
+ unrighteousness. 1 John i. 9._
+
+The same moment which brings the consciousness of sin ought to bring
+also the confession of it and the consciousness of forgiveness.--_Smith._
+
+
+=March 5th.=
+
+ _As captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.
+ Josh. v. 14._
+
+Surely Israel might now face the foe with unwavering confidence, and
+sing of victory even before the battle was gained. And so may the
+Christian. It is to no conflict of uncertain issue that he advances; the
+result of the battle is not doubtful. The struggle may be severe, the
+warfare long; he may sometimes, like the pilgrim, be beaten to the
+ground, and well-nigh lose his sword; but "though cast down" he is "not
+destroyed." The Captain of salvation is on his side, and in the midst of
+sharpest conflict he can say, "Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the
+victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."--_S. A. Blackwood._
+
+
+=March 6th.=
+
+ _To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Phil. i.
+ 21._
+
+Live in Christ, and you are in the suburbs of heaven. There is but a
+thin wall between you and the land of praises. You are within one hour's
+sailing of the shore of the new Canaan.--_William Rutherford._
+
+
+=March 7th.=
+
+ _He that sent me is with me; the Father hath not left
+ me alone, for I do always those things that please
+ Him. John viii. 29._
+
+He who holds nearest communion with heaven can best discharge the duties
+of everyday life.--_Selected._
+
+
+=March 8th.=
+
+ _Quench not the Spirit. 1 Thess. v. 19._
+
+In order that you may not quench the Spirit, you must make it a constant
+study to know what is the mind of the Spirit. You must discriminate with
+the utmost care between His suggestions and the suggestions of your own
+deceitful heart. You will keep in constant recollection what are the
+offices of the Spirit as described by Christ in the Gospel of John. You
+will be on your guard against impulsive movements, inconsiderate acts,
+rash words. You will abide in prayer. Search the Word. Confess Christ on
+all possible occasions. Seek the society of His people. Shrink from
+conformity to the world, its vain fashions, unmeaning etiquette. Be
+scrupulous in your reading. "What I say unto you, I say unto all,
+watch!" "Have oil in your lamps." "Quench not the Spirit."--_Bowen._
+
+
+=March 9th.=
+
+ _When He cometh into the world, He saith, . . . A body
+ hast Thou prepared me. Heb. x. 5._
+
+This word of Christ must be adopted by each of His followers. Nothing
+will help us to live in this world and keep ourselves unspotted but the
+Spirit that was in Christ, that looked upon His body as prepared by God
+for His service; that looks upon our body as prepared by Him too, that
+we might offer it to Him. Like Christ, we too have a body in which the
+Holy Spirit dwells. Like Christ, we too must yield our body, with every
+member, every power, every action, to fulfil His will, to be offered up
+to Him, to glorify Him. Like Christ, we must prove in our body that we
+are holy to the Lord.--_Andrew Murray._
+
+
+=March 10th.=
+
+ _Full of [satisfied with] years. Gen. xxv. 8._
+
+Scaffoldings are for buildings, and the moments and days and years of
+our earthly lives are scaffolding. What are you building inside it? What
+kind of a structure will be disclosed when the scaffolding is knocked
+away? Days and years are ours, that they may give us what eternity
+cannot take away--a character built upon the love of God in Christ, and
+moulded into His likeness.
+
+Has your life helped you to do that? If so, you have got the best out of
+it, and your life is completed, whatever may be the number of its days.
+Quality, not quantity, is the thing that determines the perfectness of a
+life. Has your life this completeness?--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=March 11th.=
+
+ _Keep yourselves in the love of God. Jude 21._
+
+Fruit ripened in the sun is sweetest.--_Selected._
+
+
+=March 12th.=
+
+ _Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is
+ come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me. Acts
+ i. 8._
+
+Look at it! Think of it! A hundred and twenty men and women having no
+patronage, no promise of any earthly favor, no endowment, no wealth--a
+company of men and women having to get their living by common daily
+toil, and busied with all the household duties of daily life--and yet
+_they_ are to begin the conquests of Christianity! To them is entrusted
+a work which is to turn the world upside down. None so exalted but the
+influence of this lowly company shall reach to them, until the throne of
+the Caesars is claimed for Christ. None so far off but the power of this
+little band gathered in an upper room shall extend to them until the
+whole world is knit into a brotherhood! Not a force is there on the
+earth, either of men or devils, but they shall overcome it, until every
+knee shall bow to their Master, and every tongue shall confess that He
+is Lord.
+
+A thing impossible, absurd, look at it as you will, until you admit
+this--_they are to be filled with the Holy Ghost_. Then difficulties
+melt into the empty air. Then there is no limit to their hopes, for
+there is no limit to their power. Their strength is not only "as the
+strength of ten," it is as the strength of the Almighty.
+
+This is Christ's idea of Christianity; the idea not of man--it is
+infinitely too sublime--the idea of God!--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+=March 13th.=
+
+ _He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same
+ bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do
+ nothing. John xv. 5._
+
+Too much taken up with our work, we may forget our Master; it is
+possible to have the hand full, and the heart empty. Taken up with our
+Master we cannot forget our work; if the heart is filled with His love,
+how can the hands not be active in His service?--_Adolphe Monod._
+
+
+=March 14th.=
+
+ _He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. John vi.
+ 57._
+
+To feed on Christ is to get His strength into us to be our strength. You
+feed on the corn field, and the strength of the corn field comes into
+you, and is your strength. You feed on Christ, and then go and live
+your life; and it is Christ in you that lives your life, that helps the
+poor, that tells the truth, that fights the battles, and that wins the
+crown.--_Phillips Brooks._
+
+
+=Match 15th.=
+
+ _I sought Him, but I found Him not. Song of Sol. iii.
+ 1._
+
+Tell me where you lost the company of Christ, and I will tell you the
+most likely place to find Him. Have you lost Christ in the closet by
+restraining prayer? Then it is there you must seek and find Him. Did you
+lose Christ by sin? You will find Him in no other way than by the giving
+up of the sin, and seeking by the Holy Spirit to mortify the member in
+which the lust doth dwell. Did you lose Christ by neglecting the
+Scriptures? You must find Him in the Scriptures. It is a true proverb,
+"Look for a thing where you dropped it; it is there." So look for Christ
+where you lost Him, for He has not gone away.--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=March 16th.=
+
+ _Come behind in no gift. 1 Cor. i. 7._
+
+The Scripture gives four names to Christians, taken from the four
+cardinal graces so essential to man's salvation: _Saints_ for their
+holiness, _believers_ for their faith, _brethren_ for their love,
+_disciples_ for their knowledge.--_Thomas Fuller._
+
+
+=March 17th.=
+
+ _They rest not day and night. Rev. iv. 8._
+
+O blessed rest! When we rest not day and night, saying, "Holy, holy,
+holy, Lord God Almighty!"--when we shall rest from sin, but not from
+worship; from suffering and sorrow, but not from joy! O blessed day,
+when I shall rest with God; when I shall rest in knowing, loving,
+rejoicing, and praising; when my perfect soul and body shall together
+perfectly enjoy the most perfect God; when God, who is love itself,
+shall perfectly love me, and rest in His love to me, and I shall rest
+in my love to Him; when He shall rejoice over me with joy, and joy over
+me with singing, and I shall rejoice in Him!--=Baxter.=
+
+
+=March 18th.=
+
+ _They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
+ strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
+ they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk,
+ and not faint. Isa. xl. 31._
+
+The eagle that soars in the upper air does not worry itself as to how it
+is to cross rivers.--_Selected._
+
+
+=March 19th.=
+
+ _Their eyes were holden. Luke xxiv. 16._
+
+ _Their eyes were opened. Luke xxiv. 31._
+
+There is much precious significance in this. The Lord is often present
+in our lives in things that we do not dream possess any significance. We
+are asking God about something which needs His mighty working, and the
+very instrument by which He is to work is by our side, perhaps for weeks
+and months and years all unrecognized, until suddenly, some day it grows
+luminous and glorious with the very presence of the Lord, and becomes
+the mighty instrument of His victorious working. He loves to show His
+hand through the unexpected. Often he keeps us from seeing His way until
+just before He opens it, and then, immediately that it is unfolded, we
+find that He was walking by our side in the very thing, long before we
+even suspected its meaning.--_A. B. Simpson._
+
+
+=March 20th.=
+
+ _All things work together for good to them that love
+ God. Rom. viii. 28._
+
+If our circumstances find us in God, we shall find God in all our
+circumstances.--_Selected._
+
+
+=March 21st.=
+
+ _He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His
+ name's sake. Ps. xxiii. 3._
+
+He always has a purpose in His leading. He knows where the bits of green
+pasture are, and He would lead His flock to these. The way may be rough,
+but it is the right way to the pasture. "Paths of righteousness" may not
+be straight paths; but they are paths that lead somewhere--to the right
+place. Many desert paths are illusive. They start out clear and plain,
+but soon they are lost in the sands. They go nowhere. But the paths of
+righteousness have a goal to which they unerringly lead.--_J. R.
+Miller._
+
+
+=March 22nd.=
+
+ _And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the
+ hand of him whom thou wilt send. Ex. iv. 13._
+
+It was a very grudging assent. It was as much as to say, "Since Thou art
+determined to send me and I must undertake the mission, then let it be
+so; but I would that it might have been another, and I go because I am
+compelled." So often do we shrink back from the sacrifice or obligation
+to which God calls us, that we think we are going to our doom. We seek
+every reason for evading the divine will, little realizing that He is
+forcing us out from our quiet homes into a career which includes, among
+other things, the song of victory on the banks of the Red Sea; the two
+lonely sojourns for forty days in converse with God; the shining face;
+the vision of glory; the burial by the hand of Michael; and the supreme
+honor of standing beside the Lord on the Transfiguration mount.--_F. B.
+Meyer._
+
+
+=March 23rd.=
+
+ _See then that ye walk circumspectly. Eph. v. 15._
+
+There is no such thing as negative influence. We are all positive in the
+place we occupy, making the world better or making it worse.--_T. DeWitt
+Talmage._
+
+
+=March 24th.=
+
+ _She took for him an ark of bulrushes . . . and she laid
+ it in the flags by the river's brink. Ex. ii. 3._
+
+The mother of Moses laid the ark in the flags by the river's brink. Ay,
+but before doing so, she laid it on the heart of God! She could not have
+laid it so courageously upon the Nile, if she had not first devoutly
+laid it upon the care and love of God.
+
+We are often surprised at the outward calmness of men who are called
+upon to do unpleasant and most trying deeds; but could we have seen them
+in secret, we should have known the moral preparation which they
+underwent before coming out to be seen by men. Be right in the
+sanctuary, if you would be right in the market-place. Be steadfast in
+prayer, if you would be calm in affliction. Start your race from the
+throne of God itself, if you would run well, and win the prize.--_Joseph
+Parker._
+
+
+=March 25th.=
+
+ _Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law
+ of Christ. Gal. vi. 2._
+
+By lifting the burdens of others we lose our own.--_Selected._
+
+
+=March 26th.=
+
+ _I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.
+ John xvii. 4._
+
+Was the work of the Master indeed done? Was not its heaviest task yet to
+come? He had not yet met the dread hour of death. Why did He say that
+His work was done? It was because He knew that, when the will is given,
+the battle is ended. He was only in the shadows of the garden; but to
+conquer these shadows was already to conquer all. He who has willed to
+die has already triumphed over death. All that remains to Him is but the
+outer husk, the shell.
+
+The cup which our Father giveth us to drink is a cup for the will. It is
+easy for the lips to drain it when once the heart has accepted it. Not
+on the heights of Calvary, but in the shadows of Gethsemane is the cup
+presented; the act is easy after the choice. The real battle-field is
+in the silence of the spirit. Conquer there, and thou art
+crowned.--_George Matheson._
+
+
+=March 27th.=
+
+ _A great multitude . . . stood before the throne. Rev.
+ vii. 9._
+
+A _station on the feet_ in front of the throne in _heaven_ is the effect
+of being often _on the knees_ before the throne on _earth_.--_Selected._
+
+
+=March 28th.=
+
+ _God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided
+ the light from the darkness. Gen. i. 4._
+
+No sooner is there a good thing in the world than a _division is
+necessary_. Light and darkness have no communion; God has divided them,
+let us not confound them. Sons of light must not have fellowship with
+deeds, doctrines, or deceits of darkness. The children of the day must
+be sober, honest, and bold in their Lord's work, leaving the works of
+darkness to those who shall dwell in it forever.
+
+We should by our distinct separation from the world divide the light
+from the darkness. In judgment, in action, in hearing, in teaching, in
+association, we must discern between the precious and the vile, and
+maintain the great distinction which the Lord made upon the world's
+first day.
+
+O Lord Jesus, be Thou our light throughout the whole of this day, for
+Thy light is the light of men.--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=March 29th.=
+
+ _The path of the just is as the shining light, that
+ shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Prov. iv.
+ 18._
+
+Have I begun this path of heavenly love and knowledge now? Am I
+progressing in it? Do I feel some dawnings of the heavenly light,
+earnests and antepasts of the full day of glory? Let all God's dealings
+serve to quicken me in my way. Let every affection it may please Him to
+send, be as the moving pillar-cloud of old, beckoning me to move my tent
+onward, saying, "Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest." Let me
+be often standing now on faith's lofty eminences, looking for "the day
+of God"--the rising sun which is to set no more in weeping clouds.
+Wondrous progression! How will all earth's learning, its boasted
+acquirements and eagle-eyed philosophy sink into the lispings of very
+infancy in comparison with this manhood of knowledge! Heaven will be the
+true "_Excelsior_," its song, "_a song of degrees_," Jesus leading His
+people from height to height of glory, and saying, as He said to
+Nathaniel, "_Thou shalt see GREATER things than these!_"--_Macduff._
+
+
+=March 30th.=
+
+ _Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the
+ vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom. Song of
+ Sol. ii. 15. (R. V.)_
+
+How numerous the little foxes are! Little compromises with the world;
+disobedience to the still, small voice in little things; little
+indulgences of the flesh to the neglect of duty; little strokes of
+policy; doing evil in little things that good may come; and the beauty,
+and the fruitfulness of the vine are sacrificed!--_J. Hudson Taylor._
+
+
+=March 31st.=
+
+ _The children of your Father which is in heaven. Matt.
+ v. 45._
+
+The best name by which we can think of God is Father. It is a loving,
+deep, sweet, heart-touching name, for the name of father is in its
+nature full of inborn sweetness and comfort. Therefore, also, we must
+confess ourselves children of God, for by this name we deeply touch our
+God, since there is not a sweeter sound to the father than the voice of
+the child.--_Martin Luther._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: APRIL]
+
+
+
+=April 1st.=
+
+ _In the morning came the word of the Lord unto me.
+ Ezek. xii. 8._
+
+A quiet hour spent alone with God at the beginning of the day is the
+best beginning for the toils and cares of active business. A brief
+season of prayer, looking above for wisdom and grace and strength, and
+seeking for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, helps us to carry our
+religion into the business of the day. It brings joy and peace within
+the heart. And as we place all our concerns in the care and keeping of
+the Lord, faithfully striving to do His will, we have a joyful trust
+that however dark or discouraging events may appear, our Father's hand
+is guiding everything, and will give the wisest direction to all our
+toils.--_Selected._
+
+
+=April 2nd.=
+
+ _The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the
+ ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
+ life; and man became a living soul. Gen. ii. 7._
+
+And so this soul of mine is a compound of two worlds--dust and deity! It
+touches the boundary line of two hemispheres. It is allied on one side
+to the divine; on the other, to the beast of the field. Its beginning is
+from beneath, but its culmination is from above; it is started from the
+dust of the ground, but it is finished in the breath of God.
+
+My soul, art thou living up to thy twofold origin? Art thou remembering
+thy double parentage, and therefore thy double duty? Thou hast a duty to
+thy God, for His breath is in thee; thou hast a duty to the earth, for
+out of it wast thou taken.--_George Matheson._
+
+
+=April 3rd.=
+
+ _Always rejoicing. 2 Cor. vi. 10._
+
+No Christian can ever know what is meant by those two little words,
+"always rejoicing," but the Christian who takes up his cross and follows
+Jesus.--_W. Hay Aitken._
+
+
+=April 4th.=
+
+ _All the land which thou seest, to thee will I give
+ it, and to thy seed forever. Gen. xiii. 15._
+
+God's promises are ever on the ascending scale. One leads up to another,
+fuller and more blessed than itself. In Mesopotamia God said, "I will
+show thee the land." At Bethel, "This is the land." Here, "I will give
+thee all the land, and children innumerable as the grains of sand." And
+we shall find even these eclipsed.
+
+It is thus that God allures us to saintliness. Not giving anything till
+we have dared to act--that He may test us. Not giving everything at
+first--that He may not overwhelm us. And always keeping in hand an
+infinite reserve of blessing. Oh, the unexplored remainders of God!
+Whoever saw His last star?--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+=April 5th.=
+
+ _That night they caught nothing. John xxi. 3._
+
+God may let the sinful world succeed in their forbidden schemes, but,
+blessed be His name, He does not allow His chosen ones to prosper in the
+path which leads them out of His holy will! He has a storm to send after
+every Jonah, and an empty net for every unbelieving and inconsistent
+Simon.--_A. B. Simpson._
+
+
+=April 6th.=
+
+ _They made me keeper of the vineyards; but mine own
+ vineyard have I not kept. Song of Sol. i. 6._
+
+Our attention is here drawn to a danger which is preeminently one of
+this day: the intense activity of our times may lead to zeal in service
+_to the neglect of personal communion_; but such neglect will not only
+lessen the value of the service, but tend to incapacitate us for the
+highest service.--_J. Hudson Taylor._
+
+
+=April 7th.=
+
+ _We came unto the land whither thou sentest us . . . we
+ saw the children of Anak there. Num. xiii. 27, 28._
+
+It is when we are in the way of _duty_ that we find _giants_. It was
+when Israel was going _forward_ that the giants appeared. When they
+turned back into the wilderness they found none.--_Selected._
+
+
+=April 8th.=
+
+ _Each one resembled the children of a king. Judg.
+ viii. 18._
+
+Frances Ridley Havergal says: "If the King is indeed near of kin to us,
+the royal likeness will be recognizable."
+
+
+=April 9th.=
+
+ _He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He
+ leadeth me beside the still waters. Psa. xxiii. 2._
+
+This suggests the rest into which our Good Shepherd leads His flock.
+Life is not all toil. God gives us many quiet resting-places in our
+pilgrim way.
+
+Night is one of these, when, after the day's toil, struggle, and
+exhaustion, we are led aside, and the curtains are drawn to shut out the
+noise, and He giveth His beloved sleep, in sleep giving the wonderful
+blessings of renewal. The Sabbath is another of these quiet
+resting-places. God would have us drop our worldly tasks, and have a day
+for the refreshing of both body and soul. . . . Friendship's trysts are
+also quiet resting-places, where heart may commune with heart, where
+Jesus comes, too, unseen, and gives His blessing. All ordinances of
+Christian worship--seasons of prayer and devotion, hours of communion
+with God--are quiet resting-places.
+
+Far more than we are apt to realize do we need these silent times in our
+busy life, needing them all the more the busier the life may be.--_J. R.
+Miller._
+
+
+=April 10th.=
+
+ _A daily rate for every day. 2 Kings xxv. 30._
+
+One staff aids a traveler, but a bundle of staves is a heavy
+burden.--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=April 11th.=
+
+ _Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law
+ of Christ. Gal. vi. 2._
+
+However perplexed you may at any hour become about some question of
+truth, one refuge and resource is always at hand: you can do something
+for some one beside yourself. At the times when you cannot see God,
+there is still open to you this sacred possibility, to _show_ God: for
+it is the love and kindness of human hearts through which the divine
+reality comes home to men, whether they name it or not. Let this
+thought, then, stay with you: there may be times when you cannot _find_
+help, but there is no time when you cannot _give_ help.--_George
+Merriam._
+
+
+=April 12th.=
+
+ _Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling:
+ for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to
+ do of His good pleasure. Phil. ii. 12, 13._
+
+It is not your business and mine to study whether we shall get to
+heaven, or even to study whether we shall be good men; it is our
+business to study how we shall come into the midst of the purposes of
+God and have the unspeakable privilege in these few years of doing
+something of His work.--_Phillips Brooks._
+
+
+=April 13th.=
+
+ _God . . . hath shined in our hearts, to give the light
+ of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
+ Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. iv. 6._
+
+Christian! rest not until thou knowest the full, the unbroken shining of
+God in thy heart. To this end, yield to every stirring of it that shows
+thee some unconquered and perhaps unconquerable evil. Just bring it to
+the light; let the light shine upon it, and shine it out. Wait upon the
+Lord more than watchers for the morning, for "the path of the just is as
+the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day." Count
+upon it that God wants to fill thee with the light of His glory: wait on
+Him more than watchers for the morning. "Wait, I say, on the
+Lord."--_Andrew Murray._
+
+
+=April 14th.=
+
+ _My soul, wait thou only upon God. Psa. lxii. 5._
+
+Did it ever occur to you that if you do not hear God's answer to prayer,
+it may be not because He is dumb, but because you are deaf; not because
+He has no answer to give, but because you have not been listening for
+it? We are so busy with our service, so busy with our work, and
+sometimes so busy with our praying, that it does not occur to us to stop
+our own talking and listen if God has some answer to give us with "the
+still small voice"; to be passive, to be quiet, to do nothing, say
+nothing, in some true sense think nothing; simply to be receptive and
+waiting for the voice. "Wait thou only upon God," says the Psalmist; and
+again "Wait on the Lord."--_Selected._
+
+
+=April 15th.=
+
+ _Could ye not watch with me one hour? Matt. xxvi. 40._
+
+ Oh! ye who sigh and languish, and mourn your lack of power,
+ Heed ye this gentle whisper, "Could ye not watch one hour?"
+ To fruitfulness and blessing, there is no "royal road";
+ The power for holy service is intercourse with God.
+ --_Selected._
+
+
+=April 16th.=
+
+ _My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. John
+ iv. 34._
+
+Seek your life's nourishment in your life's work.--_Phillips Brooks._
+
+
+=April 17th.=
+
+ _It is God which worketh in you, both to will and to
+ do of His good pleasure. Phil. ii. 13._
+
+Full salvation is to realize that everything we see in Christ, our
+Example, may be ours, not by imitation, but by reproduction.--_Selected._
+
+
+=April 18th.=
+
+ _Lo, I am with you all the days. Matt, xxviii. 20. (R.
+ V., margin.)_
+
+"ALL THE DAYS"--in winter days, when joys are fled; in sunless days,
+when the clouds return again and again after rain; in days of sickness
+and pain; in days of temptation and perplexity, as much as in days when
+the heart is as full of joy as the woodlands in spring are full of song.
+That day never comes when the Lord Jesus is not at the side of His
+saints. Lover and friend may stand afar, but He walks with them through
+the fires; He fords with them the rivers; He stands by them when face to
+face with the lion. We can never be alone. We must always add His
+resources to our own when making our calculations.--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+=April 19th.=
+
+ _Having . . . boldness to enter into the holiest by the
+ blood of Jesus . . . let us draw near with a true heart.
+ Heb. x. 19, 22._
+
+Oh, the glory of the message! For fifteen centuries Israel had a
+sanctuary with a Holiest of All, into which, under pain of death, no one
+might enter. Its one witness was: Man cannot dwell in God's presence;
+cannot abide in His fellowship. And now how changed is all! As then the
+warning sounded: "No admittance! enter not!" so now the call goes forth:
+"Enter in! the veil is rent; the Holiest is open; God waits to welcome
+you to His bosom; henceforth you are to live with Him." This is the
+message. Child! thy Father longs for thee to enter, to dwell, and to go
+out no more forever.--_Andrew Murray._
+
+
+=April 20th.=
+
+ _There stood by me this night the angel of God . . .
+ saying, Fear not, Paul. . . . God hath given thee all
+ them that sail with thee. Wherefore . . . be of good
+ cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it
+ was told me. Acts xxvii. 23, 24, 25._
+
+An active faith can give thanks for a promise, though it be not yet
+performed; knowing that God's bonds are as good as ready
+money.--_Matthew Henry._
+
+
+=April 21st.=
+
+ _In everything by prayer and supplication, with
+ thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto
+ God. Phil, iv. 6._
+
+The natural temptation with every difficulty is to plan for it, to put
+it out of the way yourself; but stop short with all your planning, your
+thinking, your worry, and talk to Him! "Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
+and He shall sustain thee." You may not always be able to do this in a
+moment or two. Then keep on with supplication until you know He has it,
+and prayer becomes praise. Rest, trust, and wait, and see how He does
+that which you wanted to do, and had so much care about. "Stand still
+and see the salvation of the Lord."--_A. E. Funk._
+
+
+=April 22nd.=
+
+ _They that wait upon the Lord shall . . . mount up with
+ wings as eagles. Isa. xl. 31._
+
+All creatures that have wings can escape from every snare that is set
+for them, if only they will fly high enough; and the soul that uses its
+wings can always find a sure "way to escape" from all that can hurt or
+trouble it.--_Smith._
+
+
+=April 23rd.=
+
+ _Perfect love casteth out fear. 1 John iv. 18._
+
+Fear and love rise up in antagonism to each other as motives in life,
+like those two mountains from which respectively the blessings and
+curses of the old law were pronounced--the Mount of Cursing all barren,
+stony, without verdure and without water; the Mount of Blessing green
+and bright with many a flower, and blessed with many a trickling rill.
+Fear is barren. Love is fruitful. The one is a slave, and its work is
+little worth. The other is free, and its deeds are great and precious.
+From the blasted summit of the mountain which gendereth to bondage may
+be heard the words of the law; but the power to keep all these laws must
+be sought on the sunny hill where liberty dwells in love and gives
+energy to obedience. Therefore, if you would use in your own life the
+highest power that God has given us for our growth in grace, draw your
+arguments, not from fear, but from love.--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=April 24th.=
+
+ _The love of Christ constraineth us. 2 Cor. v. 14._
+
+The love of Christ is too large for any heart to hold it. It will
+overflow into others' hearts: it will give itself out, give itself away,
+for the enriching of other lives. The heart of Christ is a costly thing
+for any one to have. It will lead those who have it where it led Him. If
+it cost Him the cross, it will cost them no less.--_J. M. Campbell._
+
+
+=April 25th.=
+
+ _I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying
+ unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee. Isa. xli. 13._
+
+Don't try to hold God's hand; let Him hold yours. Let Him do the
+_holding_, and you do the _trusting_.--_H. W. Webb Peploe._
+
+
+=April 26th.=
+
+ _Consider how great things He hath done for you. 1
+ Sam. xii. 24._
+
+Look back on all the way the Lord your God has led you. Do you not see
+it dotted with ten thousand blessings in disguise? Call to mind the
+needed succor sent at the critical moment; the right way chosen for you,
+in stead of the wrong way you had chosen for yourself; the hurtful
+thing to which your heart so fondly clung, removed out of your path; the
+breathing-time granted, which your tried and struggling spirit just at
+the moment needed. Oh, has not Jesus stood at your side when you knew it
+not? Has not Infinite Love encircled every event with its everlasting
+arms, and gilded every cloud with its merciful lining? Oh, retrace your
+steps, and mark His footprint in each one! Thank Him for them all, and
+learn the needed lesson of leaning more simply on Jesus.--_F.
+Whitfield._
+
+
+=April 27th.=
+
+ _He . . . said . . . I . . . hid thy talent in the
+ earth. . . . His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou
+ wicked and slothful servant. Matt. xxv. 24-26._
+
+Between the great things we cannot do and the small things we will not
+do, the danger is that we shall do nothing.--_Monod._
+
+
+=April 28th.=
+
+ _To Him be glory both now and forever. 2 Pet. iii.
+ 18._
+
+Believer, you are anticipating the time when you shall join the saints
+above in ascribing all glory to Jesus; but are you glorifying Him _now_?
+The apostle's words are, "To Him be glory both _now_ and forever."--_C.
+H. Spurgeon._
+
+
+=April 29th.=
+
+ _Thou shall know that I am the Lord: for they shall
+ not be ashamed that wait for me. Isa. xlix. 23._
+
+J. Hudson Taylor says: "Quiet waiting before God could save from many a
+mistake and from many a sorrow."
+
+
+=April 30th.=
+
+ _Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. Matt. xv. 28._
+
+Oh, the victories of prayer! They are the mountain-tops of the Bible.
+They take us back to the plains of Mamre, to the fords of Peniel, to
+the prison of Joseph, to the triumphs of Moses, to the transcendent
+victories of Joshua, to the deliverances of David, to the miracles of
+Elijah and Elisha, to the whole story of the Master's life, to the
+secret of Pentecost, to the key-note of Paul's unparalleled ministry, to
+the lives of saints and the deaths of martyrs, to all that is most
+sacred and sweet in the history of the Church and the experience of the
+children of God. And when, for us, the last conflict shall have passed,
+and the footstool of prayer shall have given place to the harp of
+praise, the spots of time that shall be gilded with the most celestial
+and eternal radiance, shall be those, often linked with deepest sorrow
+and darkest night, over which we have the inscription, "Jehovah-Shammah:
+The Lord was there!"--_A. B. Simpson._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MAY]
+
+
+=May 1st.=
+
+ _Thou art my God: early will I seek Thee. Psa. lxiii.
+ 1._
+
+In a world where there is so much to ruffle the spirit's plumes, how
+needful that entering into the secret of God's pavilion, which will
+alone bring it back to composure and peace! In a world where there is so
+much to sadden and depress, how blessed the communion with Him in whom
+is the one true source and fountain of all true gladness and abiding
+joy! In a world where so much is ever seeking to unhallow our spirits,
+to render them common and profane, how high the privilege of
+consecrating them anew in prayer to holiness and to God.--_Archbishop
+Trench._
+
+
+=May 2nd.=
+
+ _In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.
+ John i. 4. Ye are the light of the world. Matt. v.
+ 14._
+
+In the light we can walk and work. We walk in the light and become
+entirely children of light. We let our light, the light of God, shine,
+so that men may see our good works, and glorify our Father in heaven.
+Gently, silently, lovingly, unceasingly, we give ourselves to transmit
+the light and the love God so unceasingly shines into us. Our one work
+is to wait, and admit, and then transmit the light of God in
+Christ.--_Andrew Murray._
+
+
+=May 3d.=
+
+ _Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the
+ work of the Lord. 1 Cor. xv. 58._
+
+Activity in doing good is one recipe for being cheerful Christians; it
+is like exercise to the body, and it keeps the soul in health.--_Bishop
+Ryle._
+
+
+=May 4th.=
+
+ _Looking up to heaven He sighed. Mark vii. 34._
+
+Too often we sigh and look within; Jesus sighed and looked without. We
+sigh, and look down; Jesus sighed, and looked up. We sigh, and look to
+earth; Jesus sighed, and looked to heaven. We sigh, and look to man;
+Jesus sighed, and looked to God.--_Stork._
+
+
+=May 5th.=
+
+ _We glory in tribulations. Rom. v. 3._
+
+Have you ever thought that some day you will never have anything to try
+you or anybody to vex you again?--_A. B. Simpson._
+
+
+=May 6th.=
+
+ _Set your affection on things above, not on things on
+ the earth. Col. iii. 2._
+
+He who has his affections set on things above is like one who hangs on
+by the skies; and, having a secure hold of these, could say, though he
+saw the world roll away from beneath his feet, "My heart is fixed; my
+heart is fixed; O Lord, I will sing and give praise!"--_Guthrie._
+
+
+=May 7th.=
+
+ _The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.
+ Luke xxiv. 34._
+
+ _They . . . gladly received (Peter's) word; and the
+ same day there were added unto them about three
+ thousand souls. Acts ii. 41._
+
+Before the Lord can use us in His service we must have close individual
+dealing with Himself. He always will have to do in _secret_ with that
+soul that He intends to use in blessing others.
+
+Do you want to speak for Jesus to those around you? Then you must go to
+Jesus Himself for your message. What you say _for_ Jesus must be got
+_from_ Jesus.
+
+Oh, how much breath falls powerless on every side because it has not
+been inhaled in the sanctuary! We want more secret dealing with the
+living God. We run without being sent: we speak before God has spoken to
+us: no wonder we so often fail. Oh, what secret prayer and what
+heart-searching discipline the heart needs before God can use it!--_F.
+Whitfield._
+
+
+=May 8th.=
+
+ _The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul.
+ Prov. xiii. 25._
+
+Christ must satisfy; then, if we are not satisfied, it must be because
+we are not feeding on Him wholly and only. The fault is not in the
+provision which is made.--_Frances Ridley Havergal._
+
+
+=May 9th.=
+
+ _Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Heb. xii. 6._
+
+It has been well said that "earthly cares are a heavenly discipline,"
+but they are even something better than discipline; they are God's
+chariots, sent to take the soul to its high places of triumph. In the
+Canticles we are told of "a chariot paved with love." We cannot always
+see the love lining to our own particular chariot--it often looks very
+unlovely; but every chariot sent by God must necessarily be paved with
+love, since God is love. It is His love, indeed, that sends the chariot.
+
+Look upon your chastenings, then, no matter how grievous they may be for
+the present, as God's chariots, sent to carry your souls into the "high
+places" of spiritual achievement and uplifting, and you will find that
+they are, after all, "paved with love."--_Smith._
+
+
+=May 10th.=
+
+ _The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from
+ all sin. 1 John i. 7._
+
+Learn a lesson from the eye of the miner, who all day long is working
+amid the flying coal dust. When he emerges in the light of day his face
+may be grimy enough; but his eyes are clear and lustrous, because the
+fountain of tears in the lachrymal gland is ever pouring its gentle
+tides over the eye, cleansing away each speck of dust as soon as it
+alights.
+
+Is not this the miracle of cleansing which our spirits need in such a
+world as this? And this is what our blessed Lord is prepared to do for
+us by His cleansing blood, if only we will trust Him.--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+=May 11th.=
+
+ _Whatsoever He sayeth unto you, do it. John ii. 5._
+
+Florence Nightingale said: "If I could give you information of my life,
+it would be to show how a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by
+God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do in His service what He has
+done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done
+all, and I nothing. I have worked hard, very hard, that is all; and I
+have never refused God anything."
+
+
+=May 12th.=
+
+ _I know how to abound. Phil. iv. 12._
+
+It is a dangerous thing to be prosperous. The crucible of adversity is
+a less severe trial to the Christian than the refining-pot of
+prosperity. It needs more than human skill to carry the brimming cup of
+mortal joy with a steady hand; yet Paul had learned that skill, for he
+declares, "In all things I am instructed both to be full and to be
+hungry." When we have much of God's providential mercies it often
+happens that we have but little of God's grace; satisfied with earth, we
+are content to do without heaven. Rest assured, it is harder to know how
+to be full than it is to know how to be hungry, so desperate is the
+tendency of human nature to pride and forgetfulness of God. Take care
+that you ask in your prayers that God would teach you "how to be
+full."--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=May 13th.=
+
+ _Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he
+ that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Luke xiv. 11._
+
+. . . If you ask the way to the crown--'tis by the cross; to the
+mountain--'tis by the valley; to exaltation 'tis he that humbleth
+himself.--_J. H. Evans._
+
+
+=May 14th.=
+
+ _For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also
+ might be sanctified through the truth. John xvii. 19._
+
+Do you remember, when Jesus was sitting with His disciples at the last
+supper, how He lifted up His voice and prayed, and in the midst of His
+prayer there came these wondrous words: "For their sakes I sanctify
+myself, that they also might be sanctified"? Is there anything in all
+the teachings that man has had from the lips of God that is nobler, that
+is more far-reaching than that--to be my best not simply for my own
+sake, but for the sake of the world? You can help your fellow-men--you
+must help your fellow-men; but the only way you can help them is by
+being the noblest and the best man that it is possible for you to
+be.--_Phillips Brooks._
+
+
+=May 15th.=
+
+ _He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty;
+ and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a
+ city. Prov. xvi. 32._
+
+More dear in the sight of God and His angels than any other conquest is
+the conquest of self, which each man, with the help of heaven, can
+secure for himself.--_Dean Stanley._
+
+
+=May 16th.=
+
+ _For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me
+ my petition which I asked of Him: therefore also I
+ have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he
+ shall be lent to the Lord. 1 Sam. i. 27, 28._
+
+God sometimes bestows gifts just that love may have something to
+renounce. The things that He puts into our hands are possibly put there
+that we may have the opportunity of showing what is in our heart. Oh,
+that there were in us a fervor of love that would lead us to examine
+everything that belongs to us, to ascertain how it might be made a means
+of showing our affection to Christ!--_George Bowen._
+
+
+=May 17th.=
+
+ _Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His
+ righteousness, and all these things shall be added
+ unto you. Matt. vi. 33._
+
+We need have only one care, that we put the first thing
+first--faithfulness to God. Then all else we need for both worlds will
+be supplied. God will never fail us; but we forget, sometimes, in our
+rejoicing over such an assurance, that we must fulfil our part if we
+would claim the divine promise.
+
+It will not always be easy. To-morrow it may mean a distasteful task, a
+disagreeable duty, a costly sacrifice for one who does not seem worthy.
+Life is full of sore testings of our willingness to follow the Good
+Shepherd. We have not the slightest right to claim this assurance unless
+we have taken Christ as the guide of our life.--_J. R. Miller._
+
+
+=May 18th.=
+
+ _His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psa.
+ xxxiv. 1._
+
+Let not thy praises be transient--a fit of music, and then the
+instrument hung by the wall till another gaudy day of some remarkable
+providence makes thee take it down. God comes not guestwise to His
+saints' house, but to dwell with them. David took this up for a life
+work: "As long as I live, I will praise thee."--_Gurnall._
+
+
+=May 19th.=
+
+ _I am not able to bear all this people alone, because
+ it is too heavy for me. Num. xi. 14._
+
+It is most needful for all servants of Christ to remember that whenever
+the Lord places a man in a position of responsibility, He will both fit
+him for it and maintain him in it.
+
+It is, of course, another thing altogether if a man will rush unsent
+into any field of work, or any post of difficulty or danger. In such a
+case we may assuredly look for a thorough breakdown, sooner or later.
+But when God calls a man to a certain position, He will endow him with
+the needed grace to occupy it.
+
+This holds good in every case. We can never fail if we only cling to the
+living God. We can never run dry if we are drawing from the fountain.
+Our tiny springs will soon dry up; but our Lord Jesus Christ declares,
+"He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly
+shall flow rivers of living water."--_C. H. M._
+
+
+=May 20th.=
+
+ _Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone: because I am
+ a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a
+ people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the
+ King, the Lord of hosts. Isa. vi. 5._
+
+It is not the sight of our sinful heart that humbles us; it is a sight
+of Jesus Christ. I am undone because mine eyes have seen the
+King.--_Andrew A. Bonar._
+
+
+=May 21st.=
+
+ _While I was musing the fire burned. Psa. xxxix. 3._
+
+My soul, if thou wouldst muse more, the fire would burn more. Why dost
+thou not retire oftener with thyself? Thou wouldst be better fitted for
+the world if thou wert less worldly. If thou hadst more heavenly fire
+thou wouldst have more earthly power.
+
+Is there no secret pavilion into which thou canst go and warm thyself?
+Is there no holy of holies where thou canst catch a glow of impulse that
+will make thee strong? Is it not written of the Son of Man that "as He
+_prayed_ the fashion of His countenance was altered"? Yes; it was from
+His prayer that His transfigured glory came. It was from the glow of His
+heart that there issued the glow of His countenance. It was when He was
+musing that the fire kindled.
+
+O my soul, wouldst thou have thy life glorified, beautified,
+transfigured to the eyes of men? Get thee up into the secret place of
+God's pavilion, where the fires of love are burning. Thy life shall
+shine gloriously to the dwellers on the plain. Thy prayers shall be
+luminous; they shall light thy face like the face of Moses when he wist
+not that it shone. Thy words shall be burning; they will kindle many a
+heart journeying on the road to Emmaus. Thy path shall be lambent; when
+thou hast prayed in Elijah's solitude thou shalt have Elijah's chariot
+of fire.--_George Matheson._
+
+
+=May 22nd.=
+
+ _Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these
+ little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a
+ disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in nowise
+ lose his reward. Matt. x. 42._
+
+We are in danger of looking too far for opportunities of doing good and
+communicating. In reaching for rhododendrons we trample down the
+daisies.--_Selected._
+
+
+=May 23rd.=
+
+ _Hide thyself by the brook. 1 Kings xvii. 3._
+
+Not by the _river_, but by the _brook_. The river would always contain
+an abundant supply, but the brook might dry up at any moment.
+
+What does this teach us? God does not place His people in luxuriance
+here. The world's abundance might withdraw their affections from Him. He
+gives them not the river, but the brook. The brook may be running
+to-day, to-morrow it may be dried up.
+
+And wherefore does God act thus? To teach us that we are not to rest in
+His gifts and blessings, but in Himself. This is what our hearts are
+always doing--resting in the gift, instead of the Giver. Therefore God
+cannot trust us by the river, for it unconsciously takes up His place in
+the heart. It is said of Israel that when they were full they forgot
+God.--_F. Whitfield._
+
+
+=May 24th.=
+
+ _His kingdom ruleth over all. Psa. ciii. 19._
+
+_His kingdom ruleth over all_--therefore thou canst find nothing which
+is not matter for praise, since there is nothing which is not the matter
+of thy Lord's gracious permission, or planning, or control. _Over
+all_--nowhere canst thou step outside His realm, nor in anything get
+beyond His care and government. _Over all_--therefore take all as from
+God; hold all as from God; and by thy gratitude give all back to God
+again, and thus complete the circle, making Him the Alpha and Omega, the
+Beginning and the Ending of all things.--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+=May 25th.=
+
+ _If we suffer we shall also reign with Him. 2 Tim. ii.
+ 12._
+
+The highest bidder for the crown of glory is the lowliest wearer of the
+cross of self-denial.--_A. J. Gordon._
+
+
+=May 26th.=
+
+ _Keep thy heart with all diligence: for out of it are
+ the issues of life. Prov. iv. 23._
+
+He who would keep his heart pure and holy, must plant a sentinel at
+every avenue by which sin may find access there, guarding against none
+more than the "little" sins, as they are called.
+
+The man of God has his _eyes_ to keep, and so Job said, "I have made a
+covenant with mine eyes"--his _tongue_, and hence the exhortation, "Keep
+thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile"--his _ears_, and
+hence the warning, "Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth
+to err"--his _feet_, and hence David says, "I have refrained my feet
+from every evil way, that I might keep Thy word." And since there is no
+gate of the five senses by which the enemy may not come in like a flood,
+unless the Spirit lift up a standard against him, we have need to guard
+every port, and write over every portal, "Here there entereth nothing to
+hurt or to defile."--_Guthrie._
+
+
+=May 27th.=
+
+ _Whatsoever ye do, . . . do all in the name of the Lord
+ Jesus. Col. iii. 17._
+
+Do little things as if they were great, because of the majesty of the
+Lord Jesus Christ, who dwells in thee; and do great things as if they
+were little and easy, because of His omnipotence.--_Pascal._
+
+
+=May 28th.=
+
+ _Him they compelled to bear His cross. Matt. xxvii.
+ 32._
+
+There are many Christians of whom this is true. They are compelled to
+bear the cross, but how does it come? It comes by their running away
+from it. They make up their minds they won't have Christ's cross; and
+they find when the cross does come that it comes in a more terrible
+form, with a more crushing weight than ever it would have come had they
+only been content to submit themselves to the divine direction; for the
+cross has to come to all who are to be prepared for glory
+hereafter.--_W. Hay Aitken._
+
+
+=May 29th.=
+
+ _Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . gave Himself for our sins
+ that He might deliver us from this present evil world.
+ Gal. i. 4._
+
+Attachment to Christ is the only secret of detachment from the
+world.--_A. J. Gordon._
+
+
+=May 30th.=
+
+ _Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on
+ an hill cannot be hid. Matt. v. 14._
+
+Lamps do not talk, but they do shine. A lighthouse sounds no drum, it
+beats no gong; and yet far over the waters its friendly spark is seen by
+the mariner. So let your actions shine out your religion. Let the main
+sermon of your life be illustrated by all your conduct.--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=May 31st.=
+
+ _Without me ye can do nothing. John xv. 5._
+
+ _I can do all things, through Christ which
+ strengtheneth me. Phil. iv. 13._
+
+Apart from Him we can do nothing. Whilst we are abiding in Him nothing
+is impossible. The one purpose of our life should therefore be to remain
+in living and intense union with Christ, guarding against everything
+that would break it, employing every means of cementing and enlarging
+it. And just in proportion as we do so, we shall find His strength
+flowing into us for every possible emergency. We may not feel its
+presence; but we shall find it present whenever we begin to draw on it.
+There is no temptation which we cannot master; no privation which we
+cannot patiently bear; no difficulty with which we cannot cope; no work
+which we cannot perform; no confession or testimony which we cannot
+make, if only our souls are living in healthy union with Jesus Christ;
+for as our day or hour, so shall our strength be.--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: JUNE]
+
+
+=June 1st.=
+
+ _As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. John
+ xx. 21._
+
+We should never leave our room until we have seen the face of our dear
+Master, Christ, and have realized that we are being sent forth by Him to
+do His will, and to finish the work which He has given us to do. He who
+said to His immediate followers, "As my Father hath sent me, even so
+send I you," says as much to each one of us, as the dawn summons us to
+live another day. We should realize that we are as much sent forth by
+Him as the angels who "do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of
+His word." There is some plan for each day's work, which He will unfold
+to us, if only we will look up to Him to do so; some mission to fulfil;
+some ministry to perform; some lesson patiently to learn, that we may be
+able to "reach others also." As to our plans we need not be anxious;
+because He who sends us forth is responsible to make the plan, according
+to His infinite wisdom; and to reveal it to us, however dull and stupid
+our faculties may be. And as to our sufficiency, we are secure of having
+all needful grace; because He never sends us forth, except He first
+breathes on us and says, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." There is always a
+special endowment for special power.--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+=June 2nd.=
+
+ _A fountain . . . for sin and for uncleanness. Zech.
+ xiii. 1._
+
+You that have faith in the Fountain, _frequent it_. Beware of two errors
+which are very natural and very disastrous. Beware of thinking any sin
+too great for it; beware of thinking any sin too small. There is not a
+sin so little, but it may be the germ of everlasting perdition; there is
+not a sin so enormous, but a drop of atoning blood will wash it away as
+utterly as if it were drowned in the depths of the sea.--_James
+Hamilton._
+
+
+=June 3rd.=
+
+ _I am black . . . as the tents of Kedar. Song of Sol. i.
+ 5._
+
+ _I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me. Song
+ of Sol. vii. 10._
+
+Nothing humbles the soul like sacred and intimate communion with the
+Lord; yet there is a sweet joy in feeling that _He_ knows _all_, and,
+notwithstanding, loves us still.--_J. Hudson Taylor._
+
+
+=June 4th.=
+
+ _David enquired of the Lord. 2 Sam. v. 19._
+
+Christian, if thou wouldst know the path of duty, take God for thy
+compass; if thou wouldst steer thy ship through the dark billows, put
+the tiller into the hand of the Almighty. Many a rock might be escaped
+if we would let our Father take the helm; many a shoal or quicksand we
+might well avoid if we would leave it to His sovereign will to choose
+and to command. The Puritan said, "As sure as ever a Christian carves
+for himself he'll cut his own fingers." "I will instruct thee and teach
+thee in the way which thou shalt go," is God's promise to His people.
+Let us, then, take all our perplexities to Him and say, "Lord, what wilt
+thou have me to do?" Leave not thy chamber this morning without
+_enquiring of the Lord_.--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=June 5th.=
+
+ _A certain man . . . who never had walked . . . heard
+ Paul speak: who . . . perceiving that he had faith to
+ be healed, said . . . Stand upright on thy feet. And he
+ leaped and walked. Acts xiv. 8, 9, 10._
+
+Where true faith is, it will induce obedience and where it does induce
+obedience, it will always, in one form or another, bring a
+blessing.--_W. Hay Aitken._
+
+
+=June 6th.=
+
+ _Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord . . . I know that
+ . . . whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it
+ thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise
+ again. Martha saith unto Him, I know that he shall
+ rise again in the resurrection at the last day. John
+ xi. 21, 22, 23, 24._
+
+Beware, in your prayer, above everything, of limiting God, not only by
+unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect
+unexpected things, _above all that_ we ask or think. Each time you
+intercede, be quiet first and worship God in His glory. Think of what He
+can do, of how He delights to hear Christ, of your place in Christ; and
+expect great things.--_Andrew Murray._
+
+
+=June 7th.=
+
+ _As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have
+ put on Christ. Gal. iii. 27._
+
+Not simply the righteousness of our Savior, not simply the beauty of His
+holiness or the graces of His character, are we to put on as a garment.
+The Lord Himself is our vesture. Every Christian is not only a
+Christ-bearer but a Christ-wearer. We are so to enter into Him by
+communion, to be so endued with His presence, and embued with His Spirit
+that men shall see Him when they behold us, as they see our garments
+when they look upon our bodies.--=A. J. Gordon.=
+
+
+=June 8th.=
+
+ _Thou shalt never wash my feet. John xiii. 8._
+
+Whatever hinders us from receiving a blessing that God is willing to
+bestow upon us is not humility, but the mockery of it. A genuine
+humility will ever feel the need of the largest measures of grace, and
+will be perfected just in the degree in which that grace is bestowed.
+The truly humble man will seek to be filled with all the fulness of God,
+knowing that when so filled there is not the slightest place for pride
+or for self.--_George Bowen._
+
+
+=June 9th.=
+
+ _Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain
+ thee. Psa. lv. 22._
+
+He that taketh his own cares upon himself loads himself with an uneasy
+burden. The fear of what _may_ come, expectation of what _will_ come,
+desire of what will _not_ come, and the inability to redress all these,
+must needs bring him continual torment. _I_ will cast my cares upon
+_God_: He hath bidden me. They cannot hurt Him: He can redress
+them.--_Hall._
+
+
+=June 10th.=
+
+ _Well done, good and faithful servant. . . . Thou
+ wicked and slothful servant. Matt. xxv. 21, 26._
+
+God holds us responsible not for what we _have_, but for what we _might
+have_; not for what we _are_, but for what we _might_ be.--_Mark Guy
+Pearse._
+
+
+=June 11th.=
+
+ _Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a ship.
+ Matt. xiv. 22._
+
+Jesus _constrained_ them to go! One would think that if ever there was
+the certain promise of success in a mission, it was here. Surely, here,
+if anywhere, a triumphant issue might have been confidently predicted;
+and yet here, more than anywhere, there was seeming failure. He sent
+them out on a voyage, and they met such a storm as they had never yet
+experienced.
+
+Let me ponder this, for it has been so with me, too. I have sometimes
+felt myself impelled to act by an influence which seemed above
+me--constrained to put to sea. The belief that I was constrained gave me
+confidence, and I was sure of a calm voyage. But the result was outward
+failure. The calm became a storm; the sea raged, the winds roared, the
+ship tossed in the midst of the waves, and my enterprise was wrecked ere
+it could reach the land.
+
+Was, then, my divine command a delusion?
+
+Nay; nor yet was my mission a failure. He did send me on that voyage,
+but He did not send me for _my_ purpose. He had one end and I had
+another. My end was the outward calm; His was my meeting with the storm.
+My end was to gain the harbor of a material rest; His was to teach me
+there is a rest even on the open sea.--_George Matheson._
+
+
+=June 12th.=
+
+ _Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman
+ that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the
+ word of truth. 2 Tim. ii. 15._
+
+Have thy tools ready; God will find thee work.--_Charles Kingsley._
+
+
+=June 13th.=
+
+ _Come out from among them, and be ye separate. 2 Cor.
+ vi. 17._
+
+With all the world in his choice, God placed His ancient people in a
+very remarkable situation. On the north they were walled in by the snowy
+ranges of Lebanon; a barren desert formed their eastern boundary; far to
+the south stretched a sterile region, called the howling wilderness;
+while the sea--not then, as now, the highway of the nations,
+facilitating rather than impeding intercourse--lay on their west,
+breaking on a shore that had few harbors and no navigable rivers to
+invite the steps of commerce.
+
+May we not find a great truth in the very position in which God placed
+His chosen people? It certainly teaches us that to be holy, or
+sanctified, we must be a separate people--living in the world, but not
+of it--as oil, that may be mixed, but cannot be combined with
+water.--_Guthrie._
+
+
+=June 14th.=
+
+ _I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places
+ whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into
+ this land. Gen. xxviii. 15._
+
+"With thee," companionship; "Keep thee," guardianship; "Bring thee,"
+guidance.
+
+
+=June 15th.=
+
+ _I have set thee . . . that thou shouldst be for
+ salvation unto the ends of the earth. Acts xiii. 47._
+
+ _Ye shall be witnesses unto me . . . unto the uttermost
+ parts of the earth. Acts i. 8._
+
+Men are questioning now, as they never have questioned before, whether
+Christianity is, indeed, the true religion which is to be the salvation
+of the world. Christian men, it is for us to give our bit of answer to
+that question. It is for us, in whom the Christian church is at this
+moment partially embodied, to declare that Christianity, that the
+Christian faith, the Christian manhood can do that for the world which
+the world needs.
+
+You ask, "What can I do?"
+
+You can furnish one Christian life. You can furnish a life so faithful
+to every duty, so ready for every service, so determined not to commit
+every sin, that the great Christian church shall be the stronger for
+your living in it, and the problem of the world be answered, and a
+certain great peace come into this poor, perplexed, phase of our
+humanity as it sees that new revelation of what Christianity
+is.--_Phillips Brooks._
+
+
+=June 16th.=
+
+ _I know whom I have believed. 2 Tim. i. 12._
+
+Personal acquaintance with Christ is a living thing. Like a tree that
+uses every hour for growth, it thrives in sunshine, it is refreshed by
+rain--even the storm drives it to fasten its grip more firmly in the
+earth for its support. So, troubled heart, in all experience, say, "This
+comes that I may make closer acquaintance with my Lord."--_Selected._
+
+
+=June 17th.=
+
+ _Wait for the promise of the Father. Acts i. 4._
+
+ _When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were
+ all with one accord in one place . . . and they were
+ all filled with the Holy Ghost. Acts ii. 1, 4._
+
+Obedience to a divine prompting transforms it into a permanent
+acquisition.--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+=June 18th.=
+
+ _We have known and believed the love that God hath to
+ us. 1 John iv. 16._
+
+The secret of walking closely with Christ, and working successfully for
+Him, is to fully realize that we are His beloved. Let us but feel that
+He has set His heart upon us, that He is watching us from those heavens
+with tender interest, that He is working out the mystery of our lives
+with solicitude and fondness, that He is following us day by day as a
+mother follows her babe in his first attempt to walk alone, that He has
+set His love upon us, and, in spite of ourselves, is working out for us
+His highest will and blessing, as far as we will let Him, and then
+nothing can discourage us. Our hearts will glow with responsive love.
+Our faith will spring to meet His mighty promises, and our sacrifices
+shall become the very luxuries of love for one so dear. This was the
+secret of John's spirit. "We have known and believed the love that God
+hath to us." And the heart that has fully learned this has found the
+secret of unbounded faith and enthusiastic service.--_A. B. Simpson._
+
+
+=June 19th.=
+
+ _Endure . . . as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 2 Tim.
+ ii. 3._
+
+Life is not victory, but battle. Be patient a little longer. By and by,
+each in his turn, we shall hear the sunset gun.--_Selected._
+
+
+=June 20th.=
+
+ _Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me,
+ cannot be my disciple. Luke xiv. 27._
+
+There is always the shadow of the cross resting upon the Christian's
+path. Is that a reason why you should avoid or not undertake the duty?
+Have you made up your mind that you will follow your Master everywhere
+else, save when he ascends the path that leads to the cross? Is that
+your religion? The sooner you change it, the better. The religion of the
+Lord Jesus Christ is the religion of the cross, and unless we take up
+our cross, we can never follow Him.--_W. Hay Aitken._
+
+
+=June 21st.=
+
+ _These . . . have turned the world upside down. Acts
+ xvii. 6._
+
+The serene beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the
+world next to the might of God.--_Pascal._
+
+
+=June 22nd.=
+
+ _What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know
+ hereafter. John xiii. 7._
+
+God keeps a school for His children here on earth and one of His best
+teachers is Disappointment. My friend, when you and I reach our Father's
+house, we shall look back and see that the sharp-voiced, rough; visaged
+teacher, Disappointment, was one of the best guides to train us for it.
+He gave us hard lessons; he often used the rod; he often led us into
+thorny paths; he sometimes stripped off a load of luxuries; but that
+only made us travel the freer and the faster on our heavenward way. He
+sometimes led us down into the valley of the death-shadow; but never did
+the promises read so sweetly as when spelled out by the eye of faith in
+that very valley. Nowhere did he lead us so often, or teach us such
+sacred lessons, as at the cross of Christ. Dear, old, rough-handed
+teacher! We will build a monument to thee yet, and crown it with
+garlands, and inscribe on it: _Blessed be the memory of
+Disappointment!_--_Theodore Cuyler._
+
+
+=June 23rd.=
+
+ _As thy days, so shall thy strength be. Deut. xxxiii.
+ 25._
+
+ _I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth
+ me. Phil. iv. 13._
+
+He will not impose upon you one needless burden. He will not exact more
+than He knows your strength will bear. He will ask no Peter to come to
+Him on the water, unless He impart at the same time strength and support
+on the unstable waves. He will not ask you to draw water if the well is
+too deep, or to withdraw the stone if too heavy. But neither at the
+same time will He admit as an impossibility that which, as a free and
+responsible agent, it is in your power to avert. He will not regard as
+your misfortune what is your crime.--_Macduff._
+
+
+=June 24th.=
+
+ _Thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Acts
+ viii. 21._
+
+The worst of all mockeries is a religion that leaves the heart
+unchanged: a religion that has _everything_ but the love of Christ
+enshrined in the soul.--_F. Whitfield._
+
+
+=June 25th.=
+
+ _The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul
+ for the work whereunto I have called them. Acts xiii.
+ 2._
+
+We have such a nice little quiet, shady corner in the vineyard, down
+among the tender grapes, with such easy little weedings and waterings to
+attend to. And then the Master comes and draws us out into the thick of
+the work, and puts us in a part of the field where we never should have
+thought of going, and puts larger tools into our hands, that we may do
+more at a stroke. And we know we are not sufficient for these things,
+and the very tools seem too heavy for us, and the glare too dazzling and
+the vines too tall. Ah! but would we dally, go back? He would not be in
+the shady corner with us now; for when He put us forth He went before
+us, and it is only by closer following that we can abide with
+Him.--_Frances Ridley Havergal._
+
+
+=June 26th.=
+
+ _Small things. Zech. iv. 10._
+
+It is the little words you speak, the little thoughts you think, the
+little things you do or leave undone, the little moments you waste or
+use wisely, the little temptations which you yield to or overcome--the
+little things of every day that are making or marring your future
+life.--_Selected._
+
+
+=June 27th.=
+
+ _Be perfect, be of good comfort. 2 Cor. xiii. 11._
+
+A glance at the words is enough to make us feel how contradictory they
+are. _Be perfect_--that is a word that strikes us with despair; at once
+we feel how far away we are from our own poor ideal, and alas! how much
+further from God's ideal concerning us. _Be of good comfort_--ah, that
+is very different! That seems to say, "Do not fret; do not fear. If you
+are not what you would be, you must be thankful for what you are."
+
+Now the question is this--How can these two be reconciled?
+
+It is only the religion of Jesus Christ that reconciles them. He stands
+in our midst, and with the right hand of His righteousness He pointeth
+us upward, and saith, "Be perfect." There is no resting-place short of
+that. Yet with the left hand of His love He doth encompass us, as He
+saith, "Soul, be of good comfort; for that is what I came to do for
+thee."--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+=June 28th.=
+
+ _Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is
+ in heaven is perfect. Matt. v. 48._
+
+Seeking the aid of the Holy Spirit, let us aim at perfection. Let every
+day see some sin crucified, some battle fought, some good done, some
+victory won; let every fall be followed by a rise, and every step gained
+become, not a resting-place, but a new starting-point for further and
+higher progress.--_Guthrie._
+
+
+=June 29th.=
+
+ _Sleep on now, and take your rest. Mark xiv. 41._
+
+Never did that sacred opportunity to watch with Christ return to His
+disciples. Lost then, it was lost forever. And now when Jesus is still
+beholding the travail of His soul in the redemption of the world, if you
+fail to be with Him watching for souls as they that must give account,
+remember that the opportunity will never return. "Watch, therefore,"
+says your Lord, "lest coming suddenly, He may find you sleeping."--_A.
+J. Gordon._
+
+
+=June 30th.=
+
+ _Let us not sleep, as do others. 1 Thess. v. 6._
+
+There are many ways of promoting Christian wakefulness. Among the rest,
+let me strongly advise Christians to converse together concerning the
+ways of the Lord. Christian and Hopeful, as they journeyed towards the
+Celestial City, said to themselves:
+
+"To prevent drowsiness in this place, let us fall into good discourse."
+
+Christians who isolate themselves and walk alone are very liable to grow
+drowsy. Hold Christian company, and you will be kept wakeful by it, and
+refreshed and encouraged to make quicker progress in the road to
+heaven.--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: JULY]
+
+
+=July 1st.=
+
+ _He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear
+ not. Rev. i. 17._
+
+One of Wellington's officers, when commanded to go on some perilous
+duty, lingered a moment as if afraid, and then said:
+
+"Let me have one clasp of your all-conquering hand before I go; and then
+I can do it."
+
+Seek the clasp of Christ's hand before every bit of work, every hard
+task, every battle, every good deed. Bend your head in the dewy
+freshness of every morning, ere you go forth to meet the day's duties
+and perils, and wait for the benediction of Christ, as He lays His hands
+upon you. They are hands of blessing. Their touch will inspire you for
+courage and strength and all beautiful and noble living.--_J. R.
+Miller._
+
+
+=July 2nd.=
+
+ _Being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the
+ things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Acts i. 3._
+
+This lingering for forty days is the crowning proof of Christ's tender
+regard for His little flock. He who had laid down His life for them is
+loath to leave them. Though they had forsaken Him, and doubted Him, they
+had not wearied, much less had they worn out, His love. He stays to look
+again, and yet again, and yet again, upon them, as if turning back and
+lingering to bless them. It is all of a piece with His life of love.
+Everywhere He meets them without a touch of upbraiding, without
+recalling a single memory of all His bitter suffering, revealing Himself
+to the disciples with a tenderness and blessedness indescribably
+beautiful.
+
+How can He go till He has healed the Magdalene's broken heart? He must
+linger till poor Peter can venture near to have his forgiveness assured.
+He must stay to strengthen Thomas' faith. He must tarry with them till
+He has made them feel that He is just the same friendly, brotherly Jesus
+that He has ever been, caring for them in their work, watching them with
+a yearning pity, stooping to kindle a fire for their warmth, and to cook
+the fish for their meal, and then to bid them come and dine.--_Mark Guy
+Pearse._
+
+
+=July 3rd.=
+
+ _Jesus, . . . being wearied with His journey, sat thus
+ on the well. . . . (For His disciples were gone away unto
+ the city to buy meat.) . . . And many of the Samaritans
+ of that city believed on Him for the saying of the
+ woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I
+ did. John iv. 6, 8, 39._
+
+The bits of wayside work are very sweet. Perhaps the odd bits, when
+all is done, will really come to more than the seemingly greater
+pieces! . . . It is nice to know that the King's servants are always
+really on duty, even while some can only stand and wait.--_Frances
+Ridley Havergal._
+
+
+=July 4th.=
+
+ _Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you . . .
+ let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
+ afraid. John xiv. 27._
+
+Dark hours come to us all; and if we have no clew to a peace that can
+pass unbroken through their murky gloom, we shall be in a state of
+continual dread. Any stone flung by a chance passer-by may break the
+crystal clearness of the Lake of Peace and send disturbing ripples
+across it, unless we have learnt to trust in the perpetual presence of
+Him who can make and keep a "great calm" within the soul. Only let
+nothing come to you which you shall not instantly hand over to Him--all
+petty worries, all crushing difficulties, all inability to believe.--_F.
+B. Meyer._
+
+
+=July 5th.=
+
+ _Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi. Gen. xxv. 11._
+
+Isaac dwelt there, and made the well of the living and all-seeing God
+his constant source of supply. The usual tenor of a man's life, the
+_dwelling_ of his soul, is the true test of his state. Let us learn to
+live in the presence of the living God. Let us pray the Holy Spirit that
+this day, and every other day, we may feel, "Thou God seest me." May the
+Lord Jehovah be as a well to us, delightful, comforting, unfailing,
+springing up unto eternal life. The bottle of the creature cracks and
+dries up, but the well of the Creator never fails. Happy is he who
+dwells at the well, and so has abundant and constant supplies near at
+hand! Glorious Lord, constrain us that we may never leave Thee, but
+dwell by the well of the living God!--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=July 6th.=
+
+ _Judas Iscariot . . . was a thief, and had the bag, and
+ bore what was put therein. John xii. 4, 6._
+
+ _Freely ye have received, freely give. Matt. x. 8._
+
+Ah, but if we should go thoroughly into this matter, should we not
+probably find that many of us are guilty, in some modified and yet
+sufficiently alarming sense, of treachery to the poor? Are we not, some
+of us, sent to them with benefactions which never reach them, and are
+only unconscious of guilt because so long accustomed to look upon the
+goods as bestowed on us, whereas the light of God's word would plainly
+reveal upon those goods the names of the poor and needy?--_George
+Bowen._
+
+
+=July 7th.=
+
+ _Let every man take heed how he buildeth. 1 Cor. iii.
+ 10._
+
+Our business is not to build quickly, but to build upon a right
+foundation, and in a right spirit. Life is more than a mere competition
+as between man and man; it is not who can be done first, but who can
+work best; it is not who can rise highest in the shortest time, but who
+is working most patiently and lovingly in accordance with the designs of
+God.--_Joseph Parker._
+
+
+=July 8th.=
+
+ _As thy days, so shall thy strength be. Deut. xxxiii.
+ 25._
+
+No day without its duty; no duty without strength to perform
+it.--_Selected._
+
+
+=July 9th.=
+
+ _Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.
+ Gen. xxviii. 16._
+
+"Surely the Lord was in this place, and I knew it not." My soul, this is
+also thine experience! How often hast thou said in thy sorrow, "Verily
+thou art a God that hidest Thyself!" How often hast thou slept for very
+heaviness of heart, and desired not to wake again! And when thou didst
+wake again, lo, the darkness was all a dream! Thy vision of yesterday
+was a delusion. God had been with thee all the night with that radiance
+which has no need of the sun.
+
+O my soul, it is not only after the future thou must aspire; thou must
+aspire to see the glory of thy past. Thou must find the glory of that
+way by which thy God has led thee, and be able even of thy sorrow to
+say, "This was the gate of heaven!"--_George Matheson._
+
+
+=July 10th.=
+
+ _My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. John
+ iv. 34._
+
+The real secret of an unsatisfied life lies too often in an
+unsurrendered will.--_J. Hudson Taylor._
+
+
+=July 11th.=
+
+ _Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. 2
+ Pet. i. 5._
+
+You will find it less easy to unroot faults than to choke them by
+gaining virtues. Do not think of your faults, still less of others'
+faults; in every person who comes near you look for what is good and
+strong; honor that; rejoice in it, and, as you can, try to imitate it;
+and your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time
+comes.--_John Ruskin._
+
+
+=July 12th.=
+
+ _Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon
+ my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Song
+ of Sol. iv. 16._
+
+Sometimes God sends severe blasts of trial upon His children to develop
+their graces. Just as torches burn most brightly when swung violently to
+and fro; just as the juniper plant smells sweetest when flung into the
+flames; so the richest qualities of a Christian often come out under the
+north wind of suffering and adversity. Bruised hearts often emit the
+fragrance that God loveth to smell. Almost every true believer's
+experience contains the record of trials which were sent for the purpose
+of shaking the spice tree.--_Theodore Cuyler._
+
+
+=July 13th.=
+
+ _Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon
+ my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Song
+ of Sol. iv. 16._
+
+There are two winds mentioned in this beautiful prayer. God may send
+either or both, as seemeth Him good. He may send the north wind of
+conviction, to bring us to repentance, or He may send the south wind of
+love, to melt us into gratitude and holy joy. If we often require the
+sharp blasts of trial to develop our graces, do we not also need the
+warm south breezes of His mercy? Do we not need the new sense of
+Christ's presence in our hearts and the joys of the Holy Ghost? Do we
+not need to be melted, yes, to be overpowered by the love of
+Jesus?--_Theodore Cuyler._
+
+
+=July 14th.=
+
+ _Behold the man! John xix. 5._
+
+"Behold the man!" was Pilate's jeer. That is what all the ages have been
+doing since, and the vision has grown more and more glorious. As they
+have looked, the crown of thorns has become a crown of golden radiance,
+and the cast-off robe has glistened like the garments He wore on the
+night of the transfiguration. Martyrs have smiled in the flames at that
+vision. Sinners have turned at it to a new life. Little children have
+seen it, and have had awakened by it dim recollections of their
+heaven-home. Toward it the souls of men yearn ever.--_Robert E. Speer._
+
+
+=July 15th.=
+
+ _He (John) saith, Behold the Lamb of God! And the two
+ disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
+ John i. 36, 37._
+
+To be a Christian means to know the presence of a true personal Christ
+among us, and to follow.--_Phillips Brooks._
+
+
+=July 16th.=
+
+ _Ye shall not eat of it. Gen. iii. 3._
+
+The Sin of Paradise was eating the tree of knowledge before the tree of
+life. Life must ever be first. Knowing and not being, hearing and not
+doing, admiring and not possessing, all are light without
+life.--_Selected._
+
+
+=July 17th.=
+
+ _Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be
+ perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James i. 4._
+
+Are you where God would have you be? If not, come out, and at once, for
+you certainly ought not to be there. If you are, then be afraid to
+complain of circumstances which God has ordained on purpose to work out
+in you the very image and likeness of His Son.--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+=July 18th.=
+
+ _Sow beside all waters. Isa. xxxii. 20._
+
+Never mind whereabouts your work is. Never mind whether it be visible or
+not. Never mind whether your name is associated with it. You may never
+see the issues of your toils. You are working for eternity. If you
+cannot see results here in the hot working day, the cool evening hours
+are drawing near, when you may rest from your labors and then they will
+follow you. So do your duty, and trust God to give the seed you sow "a
+body as it hath pleased Him,"--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=July 19th.=
+
+ _Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe. Psa. cxix.
+ 117._
+
+Do not spoil the chime of this morning's bells by ringing one half a
+peal! Do not say, "Hold thou me up," and stop there, or add, "But all
+the same I shall stumble and fall!" Finish the peal with God's own
+music, the bright words of faith that He puts into your mouth: "Hold
+thou me up, _and I shall be safe!_"--_Frances Ridley Havergal._
+
+
+=July 20th.=
+
+ _Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy.
+ Matt. viii. 6._
+
+We, in this age of the church, are in the position of that sick servant
+at Capernaum. To the eye of sense we are separated from the Savior. We
+see Him not--we can touch Him not--the hand cannot steal amid the crowd
+to catch His garment hem--we cannot hear His loved footsteps as of old
+on our threshold; but faith penetrates the invisible; the
+messenger--prayer--meets Him in the streets of the New Jerusalem; and
+faith and prayer together, the twin delegates from His church below, He
+has never yet sent empty away.--_Macduff._
+
+
+=July 21st.=
+
+ _Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling:
+ for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and
+ to do of His good pleasure. Phil. ii. 12, 13._
+
+What a staggering weight of thought is excited by these words! Stay, my
+soul, and wonder that the Eternal God should stoop to work within thy
+narrow limits. Is it not a marvel indeed, that He, whom the heavens
+cannot contain, and in whose sight they are not clean, should trouble
+Himself to work on such material, so unpromising, and amidst
+circumstances so uncongenial?
+
+How careful should we be to make Him welcome, and to throw no hindrance
+in His way! How eager to garner up all the least movements of His
+gracious operation, as the machinist conserves the force of his engine;
+and as the goldsmith, with miserly care, collects every flake of gold
+leaf! Surely we shall be sensible of the _fear_ of holy reverence and
+the _trembling_ of eager anxiety; as we "work out," into daily act and
+life, all that God our Father is "working in."--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+=July 22nd.=
+
+ _. . . Sinners of whom I am chief. . . . Now unto the
+ King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God,
+ be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Tim. i.
+ 15, 17._
+
+Only those who have struck the deepest note of penitence can reach the
+highest note of praise.--_A. J. Gordon._
+
+
+=July 23rd.=
+
+ _Blessed is the man . . . that keepeth the Sabbath. Isa.
+ lvi. 2._
+
+The Sabbath is the savings-bank of human life, into which we deposit one
+day in seven to be repaid in the autumn of life with compound
+interest.--_Selected._
+
+
+=July 24th.=
+
+ _Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Psa. xix. 12._
+
+The world wants men who are saved from secret faults. The world can put
+on an outside goodness and go very far in uprightness and morality, and
+it expects that a Christian shall go beyond it, and be free from secret
+faults. A little crack will spoil the ring of the coin. . . . The world
+expects, and rightly, that the Christian should be more gentle, and
+patient, and generous, than he who does not profess to be a disciple of
+the Lord Jesus. For the sake of those who take their notion of religion
+from our lives, we need to put up this prayer earnestly, "Cleanse thou
+me from secret faults."--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+=July 25th.=
+
+ _Do thou that which is good. 2 Kings x. 5._
+
+Keep as few good intentions hovering about as possible. They are like
+ghosts haunting a dwelling. The way to lay them is to find bodies for
+them. When they are embodied in substantial deeds they are no longer
+dangerous.--_William Arnot._
+
+
+=July 26th.=
+
+ _Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and
+ Savior, Jesus Christ. 2 Pet. iii. 18._
+
+Grace has its dawn as well as day; grace has its green blade, and
+afterwards its ripe corn in the ear; grace has its babes and its men in
+Christ. With God's work there, as with all His works, "in all places of
+His dominion," progress is both the prelude and the path to perfection.
+Therefore we are exhorted to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our
+Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to go on to perfection, saying with Paul,
+"I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do,
+forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those
+things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the
+high calling of God in Christ Jesus."--_Guthrie._
+
+
+=July 27th.=
+
+ _Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived,
+ and by it slew me. Rom. vii. 11._
+
+Christian, beware how thou thinkest lightly of sin. Take heed lest thou
+fall by little and little. Sin, a _little_ thing? Is it not a poison?
+Who knows its deadliness? Sin, a little thing? Do not the little foxes
+spoil the grapes? Doth not the tiny coral insect build a rock which
+wrecks a navy? Do not little strokes fell lofty oaks? Will not continual
+droppings wear away stones? Sin, a little thing? It girded the
+Redeemer's head with thorns, and pierced His heart! It made _Him_ suffer
+anguish, bitterness and woe. Could you weigh the least sin in the scales
+of eternity, you would fly from it as from a serpent, and abhor _the
+least appearance of evil_. Look upon all sin as that which crucified the
+Savior, and you will see it to be "exceeding sinful."--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=July 28th.=
+
+ _Your heavenly Father knoweth. Matt. vi. 32._
+
+The Master judges by the result, but our Father judges by the effort.
+Failure does not always mean fault. He knows how much things cost, and
+weighs them where others only measure. Your Father! Think how great
+store His love sets by the poor beginnings of the little ones, clumsy
+and unmeaning as they may be to others. All this lies in this blessed
+relationship, and infinitely more. Do not fear to take it all as your
+own.--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+=July 29th.=
+
+ _Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
+ Col. iii. 3._
+
+It is neither talent, nor power, nor gifts that do the work of God, but
+it is that which lies within the power of the humblest; it is the
+simple, earnest life hid with Christ in God.--_F. W. Robertson._
+
+
+=July 30th.=
+
+ _The mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no
+ wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do
+ with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith
+ unto the servants, Whatsoever He saith unto you, do
+ it. John ii. 3, 4, 5._
+
+In asking for temporal blessings, true wisdom lies in putting the matter
+into the Lord's hand, and leaving it there. He knows our sorrows, and,
+if He sees it is good for us that the water should be turned into wine,
+He will do it. It is not for us to dictate: He sees what is best for us.
+When we ask for prosperity, perhaps the thing which we should have is
+trial. When we want to be relieved of a "thorn in the flesh," He knows
+what we should have is an apprehension of the fact that His grace is
+sufficient for us. So we are put into His school, and have to learn the
+lessons He has to teach us.--_W. Hay Aitken._
+
+
+=July 31st.=
+
+ _Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he
+ fall. 1 Cor x. 12._
+
+Angels fell in heaven, Adam in paradise, Peter in Christ's
+presence.--_Theophilus Polwheile._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: AUGUST]
+
+
+=August 1st.=
+
+ _Continue in prayer. Col. iv. 2._
+
+The greatest and the best talent that God gives to any man or woman in
+this world is the talent of prayer. And the best usury that any man or
+woman brings back to God when He comes to reckon with them at the end
+of this world is a life of prayer. And those servants best put their
+Lord's money to the exchangers who rise early and sit late, as long as
+they are in this world, ever finding out, and ever following after
+better and better methods of prayer, and ever forming more secret, more
+steadfast, and more spiritually fruitful habits of prayer, till they
+literally pray without ceasing, and till they continually strike out
+into new enterprises in prayer, and new achievements, and new
+enrichments.--_Alex. Whyte._
+
+
+=August 2nd.=
+
+ _He entered into one of the ships . . . and . . . sat
+ down. Luke v. iii._
+
+When Jesus sits in the ship everything is in its right place. The cargo
+is in the hold, _not in the heart_. Cares and gains, fears and losses,
+yesterday's failure and today's success do not thrust themselves in
+between us and His presence. The heart cleaves to _Him_. "Goodness and
+mercy shall _follow_ me," sang the psalmist. Alas, when the goodness and
+mercy come before us, and our blessings shut Jesus from view! Here is
+the blessed order--the Lord ever first, I following Him, His goodness
+and mercy following me.--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+=August 3rd.=
+
+ _Now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of
+ light. Eph. v. 8._
+
+We do not realize the importance of the unconscious part of our life
+ministry. It goes on continually. In every greeting we give to another
+on the street, in every moment's conversation, in every letter we write,
+in every contact with other lives, there is a subtle influence that goes
+from us that often reaches further, and leaves a deep impression than
+the things themselves that we are doing at the time. It is not so much
+what we _do_ in this world as what we _are_, that tells in spiritual
+results and impressions.--_J. R. Miller._
+
+
+=August 4th.=
+
+ _Created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Eph. ii.
+ 10._
+
+Let us ask Him to work in us to _will_ those good works, so that our
+_will_, without being impaired in its free operation, may be permeated
+and moulded by His will, just as light suffuses the atmosphere without
+displacing it. And let us also expect that He will infuse into us
+sufficient strength that we may be able to _do_ His will unto all
+pleasing. Thus, day by day, our life will be a manifestation of those
+holy volitions and lovely deeds which shall attest the indwelling and
+inworking of God. And men shall see our good works, and glorify our
+Father which is in heaven.--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+=August 5th.=
+
+ _Go in this thy might . . . have not I sent thee? Judges
+ vi. 14._
+
+God never leaves His child to fail when in the path of
+obedience.--_Theodore Cuyler._
+
+
+=August 6th.=
+
+ _Set your affection on things above, not on things on
+ the earth. Col. iii. 2._
+
+ _Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy
+ might. Eccles. ix. 10._
+
+If we are to live separate from the world, how, since men only do well
+what they do with a will, are we, with affections fixed on things above,
+to perform aright the secular, ordinary duties of life? If our hearts
+are engrossed with heavenly things, how are we to obey this other, and
+equally divine, commandment, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it
+with thy might"?
+
+The two are perfectly consistent. Man standing between the celestial and
+terrestrial worlds is related to both; and resembling neither a flower,
+which, springing from the dust and returning to it, belongs altogether
+to the earth, nor a star which, shining far remote from its lower
+sphere, belongs altogether to the heavens, our hearts may be fitly
+likened to the rainbow that, rising into heaven but resting on earth,
+is connected both with the clods of the valley and the clouds of the
+sky.--_Guthrie._
+
+
+=August 7th.=
+
+ _Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth
+ so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the
+ race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. Heb.
+ xii. 1, 2._
+
+Think, as you sit here, of anything that you are doing that is wrong, of
+any habit of your life, of your self-indulgence, or of that great,
+pervasive habit of your life which makes you a creature of the present
+instead of the eternities, a creature of the material earth instead of
+the glorious skies. Ask yourself of any habit that belongs to your own
+personal life, and bring it face to face with Jesus Christ.--_Phillips
+Brooks._
+
+
+=August 8th.=
+
+ _They took knowledge of them, that they had been with
+ Jesus. Acts iv. 13._
+
+If I think of the world, I get the impress of the world; if I think of
+my trials and sorrows, I get the impress of my trials and sorrows; if I
+think of my failures, I get the impress of my failures; if I think of
+Christ, I get the impress of Christ.--_Selected._
+
+
+=August 9th.=
+
+ _Ye call me Teacher, and Lord: and ye say well; for so
+ I am. John xiii. 13. (R. V. margin)._
+
+How wonderful a Teacher we have! Sometimes we seek Him in the house, but
+He is not there. We go forth seeking Him and find Him perhaps in the
+wilderness or on a mountain praying, or leading some poor blind man by
+the hand, or eating with publicans or sinners, or asleep in a storm or
+conversing with a Samaritan woman, or surrounded by wrathful men, or
+bearing a cross. It is not merely His words that instruct. His place,
+His occupation, His companions, His environment, His garment, His
+silence, His submission--all teem with instruction. And they that learn
+of Him are made like unto Him.--_George Bowen._
+
+
+=August 10th.=
+
+ _The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the
+ world. 1 John iv. 14._
+
+It is a sweet thought that Jesus Christ did not come forth without His
+Father's permission, authority, consent, and assistance. He was sent of
+the Father that He might be the Savior of men. . . . Didst thou ever
+consider the depth of love in the heart of Jehovah, when God the Father
+equipped His Son for the great enterprise of mercy? If not, be this thy
+day's meditation. The _Father_ sent Him! Contemplate that subject. Think
+how Jesus works what the _Father_ wills. In the wounds of the dying
+Savior see the love of the great I AM. Let every thought of Jesus be
+also connected with the eternal, ever-blessed God.--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=August 11th.=
+
+ _They that wait upon the Lord shall change their
+ strength. Isa. xl. 31. (R. V.)_
+
+ Lord, what a change within us one short hour
+ Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make!
+ What heavy burdens from our bosoms take!
+ What parched grounds refresh as with a shower!
+ We kneel--and all around us seems to lower.
+ We rise--and all the distant and the near
+ Stand forth in sunny outline, brave and clear.
+ We kneel--how weak: we rise--how full of power.
+
+ Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong
+ Or others--that we are not always strong;
+ That we are ever overborne with care;
+ That we should ever weak or heartless be,
+ Anxious or troubled, while with _us_ is prayer,
+ And joy and strength and courage are with _Thee_?
+ --_Archbishop Trench._
+
+
+=August 12th.=
+
+ _As for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee
+ so to do. Deut. xviii. 14._
+
+What a stepping-stone! We give thanks, often with a tearful, doubtful
+voice, for our spiritual mercies _positive_; but what an almost infinite
+field there is for mercies _negative_! We cannot even imagine all that
+God has suffered us _not_ to do, _not_ to be.--_Frances Ridley
+Havergal._
+
+
+=August 13th.=
+
+ _Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was
+ moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their
+ sick. . . . And when He had sent the multitudes away,
+ He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the
+ evening was come He was there alone. Matt. xiv. 14, 23._
+
+Do we, like Him, combine the two great elements of human character? Are
+our _public_ duties, the cares, and business, and engrossments of the
+world, finely tempered and hallowed by a _secret_ walk with God? If the
+world were to follow us from its busy thoroughfares, would it trace us
+to our family altars and our closet devotions?
+
+Action and meditation are the two great components of Christian life,
+and the perfection of the religious character is to find the two in
+unison and harmony.--_Macduff._
+
+
+=August 14th.=
+
+ _Leaving you an example, that ye should follow His
+ steps. 1 Pet. ii. 21. (R. V.)_
+
+I have long since ceased to pray, "Lord Jesus, have compassion on a lost
+world!" I remember the day and the hour when I seemed to hear the Lord
+rebuking me for making such a prayer. He seemed to say to me, "I have
+had compassion upon a lost world, and now it is for you to have
+compassion."--_A. J. Gordon._
+
+
+=August 15th.=
+
+ _Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Ex. xx. 3._
+
+If you find yourself beginning to love any pleasure better than your
+prayers, any book better than your Bible, any house better than God's,
+any table better than the Lord's, any person better than your Savior,
+any one better than your soul, a present indulgence better than the hope
+of heaven--take alarm!--_Guthrie._
+
+
+=August 16th.=
+
+ _Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. 1
+ Cor. xi. 1._
+
+When in the Mexican war the troops were wavering, a general rose in his
+stirrups and dashed into the enemy's line, shouting, "Men, follow!"
+They, seeing his courage and disposition, dashed on after him, and
+gained the victory.
+
+What men want to rally them for God is an example to lead them. All your
+commands to others to advance amount to nothing so long as you stay
+behind. To effect them aright, you need to start for heaven yourself,
+looking back only to give the stirring cry of "Men, follow!"--_T. DeWitt
+Talmage._
+
+
+=August 17th.=
+
+ _Serving the Lord with all humility of mind. Acts xx.
+ 19._
+
+There is a legend of an artist who long sought for a piece of
+sandalwood, out of which to carve a Madonna. He was about to give up in
+despair, leaving the vision of his life unrealized, when in a dream he
+was bidden to carve his Madonna from a block of oak wood, which was
+destined for the fire. He obeyed, and produced a masterpiece from a log
+of common fire-wood.
+
+Many of us lose great opportunities in life by waiting to find
+sandalwood for our carvings, when they really lie hidden in the common
+logs that we burn.--_Orison Swett Marden._
+
+
+=August 18th.=
+
+ _My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is
+ made perfect in weakness. 2 Cor. xii. 9._
+
+God's way of answering His people's prayers is not by removing the
+pressure, but by increasing their strength to bear it. The pressure is
+often the fence between the narrow way of life and the broad road to
+ruin; and if our Heavenly Father were to remove it, it might be at the
+sacrifice of heaven. Oh, if God had removed that thorny fence in answer,
+often to earnest prayers, how many of us would now be castaways! How the
+song of many a saint now in glory would be hushed! How many a harp would
+be unstrung! How many a place in the mansions of the redeemed would be
+unfilled! If God answered all the prayers we put up to heaven, we should
+need no other scourge. Blessed it is that we have One who is too loving
+to grant what we too often so rashly ask.--_F. Whitfield._
+
+
+=August 19th.=
+
+ _Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear
+ fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more
+ can ye, except ye abide in me. John xv. 4._
+
+From moment to moment, and from hour to hour, the inner nature of man is
+to be continuously sustained with the life of God. Only as I am
+constantly receiving His fulness into my emptiness am I really living in
+the true, full, deep sense of the word, that life of eternity, which is
+my privilege now, and will be my glory hereafter.--_W. Hay Aitken._
+
+
+=August 20th.=
+
+ _By faith Noah . . . prepared an ark to the saving of
+ his house. Heb. xi. 7._
+
+What a humble, what a modest sphere for the exercise of faith! One would
+have said that the purpose was quite disproportionate to the work. The
+ark was a great undertaking, but what was it undertaken for? To save his
+own family. Is so narrow a sphere worthy to be the object of faith? Is
+so commonplace a scene as the life of the family circle fit to be a
+temple for the service of God? . . . My soul, when thou hast finished
+thy prayers and ended thy meditations, do not say that thou hast left
+the house of God. God's house shall to thee be everywhere, and thine own
+house shall be a part of it. Thou shalt feel that all the duties of
+this place are consecrated; that it is none other than the house of God
+and one of the gates to heaven. Thou shalt feel that every one of its
+duties is an act of high communion. Therefore be it thine to make thy
+house _His_ house. Be it thine to consecrate each word and look and deed
+in the social life of home. Be it thine to build thine ark of refuge for
+the wants of common day; verily, thy labor of love shall be called an
+act of faith.--_George Matheson._
+
+
+=August 21st.=
+
+ _We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
+ good works which God hath before ordained that we
+ should walk in them. Eph. ii. 10._
+
+No man is born into the world whose work is not born with him. There is
+always work, and tools to work withal, for those who will.--_J. B.
+Lowell._
+
+
+=August 22nd.=
+
+ _He . . . began to wash the disciples' feet. John xiii.
+ 5._
+
+We forget that Jesus Christ is the same to-day, when He is sitting on
+the throne, as He was yesterday, when He trod the pathway of our world.
+And in this forgetfulness how much we miss! What He was, that He is.
+What He said, that He says. The Gospels are simply specimens of the life
+that He is ever living; they are leaves torn out of the diary of His
+unchangeable Being. To-day He is engaged in washing the feet of His
+disciples, soiled with their wilderness journeyings. Yes, that charming
+incident is having its fulfilment in thee, my friend, if only thou dost
+not refuse the lowly loving offices of Him whom we call Master and Lord,
+but who still girds Himself and comes forth to serve. And we must have
+this incessant cleansing if we would keep right. It is not enough to
+look back to a certain hour when we first knelt at the feet of the Son
+of God for pardon; and heard Him say, "Thy sins, which are many, are all
+forgiven." We need daily, hourly cleansing--from daily, hourly sin.--_F.
+B. Meyer._
+
+
+=August 23rd.=
+
+ _I am the Lord, I change not. Mal. iii. 6._
+
+Our hope is not hung upon such untwisted thread as "I imagine so," or
+"it is likely"; but the cable, the strong rope of our fastened anchor,
+is the oath and promise of Him who is eternal verity. Our salvation is
+fastened with God's own hand and Christ's own strength to the strong
+stake of God's unchanging nature.--_William Rutherford._
+
+
+=August 24th.=
+
+ _I will cause the shower to come down in his season;
+ there shall be showers of blessing. Ezek. xxxiv. 26._
+
+What is thy _season_ this morning? Is it the season of drought? Then
+that is the season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and
+black clouds? Then that is the season for showers. "As thy days so shall
+thy strength be." "I will give thee _showers_ of blessing." The word is
+in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God's blessings
+go together, like links in a golden chain. If He gives converting grace,
+He will also give comforting grace. He will send "showers of blessings."
+Look up to-day, O parched plant, and open thy leaves and flowers for a
+heavenly watering.--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=August 25th.=
+
+ _Nevertheless, at thy word. Luke v. 5._
+
+Oh, what a blessed formula for us! This path of mine is dark,
+mysterious, perplexing; _nevertheless, at Thy word_ I will go forward.
+This trial of mine is cutting, sore for flesh and blood to bear. It is
+hard to breathe through a broken heart, Thy will be done. But,
+_nevertheless, at Thy word_ I will say, Even so, Father! This besetting
+habit, or infirmity, or sin of mine, is difficult to crucify. It has
+become part of myself--a second nature; to be severed from it would be
+like the cutting off of a right hand, or the plucking out of a right
+eye; _nevertheless, at Thy word_ I will lay aside every weight; this
+idol I will utterly abolish. This righteousness of mine it is hard to
+ignore; all these virtues, and amiabilities, and natural graces, it is
+hard to believe that they dare not in any way be mixed up in the matter
+of my salvation; and that I am to receive all from first to last as the
+gift of God, through Jesus Christ my Lord. _Nevertheless, at Thy word_ I
+will count all but loss for the excellency of His knowledge.--_Macduff._
+
+
+=August 26th.=
+
+ _If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. 2 Tim.
+ ii. 12._
+
+The photographer must have a negative, as he calls it, in order to
+furnish you with a picture. Now, the earthly cross is the negative from
+which the heavenly crown is to be made; the suffering and sorrow of the
+present time determining the glory, honor and immortality of the life to
+come.--_A. J. Gordon._
+
+
+=August 27th.=
+
+ _The word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. 1
+ Pet. i. 23._
+
+The Word abideth. The Jew hated it--but it lived on, while the veil was
+torn away from the shrine which the Shekinah had forsaken, and while
+Jerusalem itself was destroyed. The Greek derided it--but it has seen
+his philosophy effete and his Acropolis in ruins. The Romans threw it
+into the flames--but it rose from its ashes, and swooped down upon the
+falling eagle. The reasoner cast it into the furnace, which his own
+negligence had heated "seven times hotter than its wont"--but it came
+out without the smell of fire. The formalist fastened serpents around it
+to poison it--but it shook them off and felt no harm. The infidel cast
+it overboard in a tempest of sophistry and sarcasm--but it rode
+gallantly upon the crest of the proud waters. And it is living
+still--yet heard in the loudest swelling of the storm--it has been
+speaking all the while--it is speaking now!--_Punshon._
+
+
+=August 28th.=
+
+ _Let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Col. iii.
+ 15._
+
+Years ago one of our fleets was terribly shattered by a violent
+gale--but it was found that some of the ships were unaffected by its
+violence. They were in what mariners call "the eye of the storm." While
+all around was desolation, they were safe. So it is with him who has the
+peace of God in his heart.--_Pilkington._
+
+
+=August 29th.=
+
+ _Ye serve the Lord Christ. Col. iii. 24._
+
+Our business as Christians is to serve the Lord in every business of
+life.--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+=August 30th.=
+
+ _Love not the world, neither the things that are in
+ the world. 1 John ii. 15._
+
+If you will go to the banks of a little stream, and watch the flies that
+come to bathe in it, you will notice that, while they plunge their
+_bodies_ into the water, they keep their _wings_ high out of the water;
+and, after swimming about a little while, they fly away with their wings
+unwet through the sunny air. Now, that is the lesson for us. Here we are
+immersed in the cares and business of the world; but let us keep the
+wings of our soul, our faith and our love, out of the world, that, with
+these unclogged, we may be ready to take our flight to heaven.--_J.
+Inglis._
+
+
+=August 31st.=
+
+ _I would have you without carefulness. 1 Cor. vii.
+ 32._
+
+Do not look forward to the changes and chances of this life in fear.
+Rather look to them with full hope that, as they arise, God, whose you
+are, will deliver you out of them. He has kept you hitherto--do you but
+hold fast to His dear hand, and He will lead you safely through all
+things; and when you cannot stand, He will bear you in His arms. Do not
+look forward to what may happen to-morrow. The same everlasting Father
+who cares for you to-day will take care of you to-morrow, and every day.
+Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing
+strength to bear it. Be at peace then, and put aside all anxious
+thoughts and imaginations.--_Francis de Sales._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: September]
+
+
+=September 1st.=
+
+ _Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be
+ inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.
+ Ezek. xxxvi. 37._
+
+Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. Turn to sacred history and you will
+find that scarcely ever did a great mercy come to this world unheralded
+by supplication. Prayer is always the preface to blessing. It goes
+before the blessing _as the blessing's shadow_. When the sunlight of
+God's mercies rises upon our necessities it casts the shadow of prayer
+far down upon the plain. Or, to use another illustration, when God piles
+up a hill of mercies He Himself shines behind them, and He casts on our
+spirits the shadow of prayer so that we may rest certain, if we are much
+in prayer, our pleadings are the shadows of mercy. Prayer is thus
+connected with the blessing to show us the value of it.--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=September 2nd.=
+
+ _Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season
+ we shall reap if we faint not. Gal. vi. 9._
+
+The hours of this present life are the ages in embryo of the life to
+come.--_A. J. Gordon._
+
+
+=September 3rd.=
+
+ _My presence shall go with thee. Ex. xxxiii. 14._
+
+We should never leave our prayer closets in the morning without having
+concentrated our thoughts deeply and intensely on the fact of the actual
+presence of God there with us, encompassing us, and filling the room as
+literally as it fills heaven itself. It may not lead to any distinct
+results at first, but, as we make repeated efforts to realize the
+presence of God, it will become increasingly real to us. And, as the
+habit grows upon us, when alone in a room, or when treading the sward of
+some natural woodland temple, or when pacing the stony street--in the
+silence of night, or amid the teeming crowds of daylight--we shall often
+find ourselves whispering the words, "Thou art near; thou art here, O
+Lord."--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+=September 4th.=
+
+ _To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness.
+ Dan. ix. 9._
+
+As a spring lock closes itself, but cannot be unlocked without a key, so
+we ourselves may run into sin, but cannot return without the key of
+God's grace.--_Cawdray._
+
+
+=September 5th.=
+
+ _It is high time to awake out of sleep. Rom. xiii.
+ 11._
+
+I have heard of a painter who loved to work by the morning light. He
+said that the colors were better understood by the light of the early
+day, and so he was wont to be in his studio waiting for the rising of
+the sun. Then every moment it grew lighter, and he found he could
+accomplish things which he could not reach if he waited till the day had
+advanced.
+
+Is there not work waiting for us--work that no one else can do--work,
+too, that the Master has promised to help us perform? Shall He come and
+find that we still sleep? Or shall the Son of Righteousness, when He
+appears, find us waiting, as that painter waited, looking and longing
+for the first gleam of day? Surely those of us who thus wait on the Lord
+shall renew our strength, and, eagle-like, rise to greet the
+Sun.--_Thomas Champness._
+
+
+=September 6th.=
+
+ _The church of God, which He hath purchased with His
+ own blood. Acts xx. 28._
+
+Surely He may do what He will with His own. The price He has paid to
+make them His own is a sufficient guarantee that He will never make
+light of anything in which their welfare is at all concerned. We are
+precious to Him by the virtue of the blood which He has shed for us, and
+for Him to be found at any time wanting in solicitude for our happiness
+would be for Him to treat that blood of His as the sinners of this world
+treat it. The persuasion of Christ's love must be graven in our hearts
+so deeply that no semblance of indifference on His part will ever make
+the slightest impression upon us. This is the victory which overcometh
+the world.--_George Bowen._
+
+
+=September 7th.=
+
+ _The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
+ believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the
+ power of the Holy Ghost. Rom. xv. 13._
+
+In spiritual as in earthly things there is great strength in hope, and,
+therefore, God's people are carefully to cultivate that grace. A
+well-grounded hope that, having been made new creatures in Jesus Christ,
+we are His; that with our names, though unknown to fame, written in the
+Book of Life, we have grace in possession and heaven in prospect; that
+after a few more brief years, pure as the angels that sing before the
+throne, we shall be brought with gladness into the palace of the King,
+to be like Christ and with Christ, seeing Him eye to eye and face to
+face--such hopes are powerful springs of action.--_Guthrie._
+
+
+=September 8th.=
+
+ _He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest it him, even
+ length of days or ever and ever. Psa. xxi. 4._
+
+When poor men make requests of us we usually answer them as the echo
+does the voice--the answer cuts off half the petition. We shall seldom
+find among men Jael's courtesy, giving milk to those that ask water,
+except it be as this was, an entangling benefit, the better to introduce
+a mischief. There are not many Naamans among us, that, when you beg of
+them one talent, will force you to take two; but God's answer to our
+prayers is like a multiplying glass, which renders the request much
+greater in the answer than it was in the prayer.--_Bishop Reynolds._
+
+
+=September 9th.=
+
+ _This beginning of miracles did Jesus. John ii. 11._
+
+It was out of the common thing that the precious thing was brought; and
+it is out of the common things of daily life, presented obediently to
+Jesus and laid at His feet, that He brings His own glorious gifts, so
+that our whole lives become one great sacrament.--_W. Hay Aitken._
+
+
+=September 10th.=
+
+ _In the daytime . . . He led them with a cloud, and all
+ the night with a light of fire. Psa. lxxviii. 14._
+
+My day is my prosperity; it is the time when the sun of fortune is
+bright above me, and, therefore, it is the time when I need a shade. If
+my sunshine were not chequered I would forget Thee, O my God.
+
+But I have nights to meet as well as days. The night is my adversity; it
+is the time when the sun of fortune has gone down behind the hills, and
+I am left alone, and then it is, O my Father, that I need the light of
+Thy fire! My light of fire for the night is the vision of Calvary--the
+vision of Thy love in the Cross. I need the light of Thy fire "_all_ the
+night."--_George Matheson._
+
+
+=September 11th.=
+
+ _Now are we the sons of God: and it doth not yet
+ appear what we shall be; but we know that when He
+ shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see
+ Him as He is. 1 John iii. 2._
+
+"Now are we the sons of God." That is the pier upon one side of the
+gulf. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when He shall appear
+we shall be like Him." That is the pier on the other. How are the two to
+be connected? There is only one way by which the present sonship will
+blossom and fruit into the future perfect likeness, and that is, if we
+throw across the gulf, by God's help day by day, the bridge of growing
+likeness to Himself, and purity therefrom.--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=September 12th.=
+
+ _Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. Matt. xx. 18._
+
+Never had there been such a going up to Jerusalem as that which Jesus
+here proposes to His disciples. He goes up voluntarily. The act was not
+enforced by any external compulsion. Jerusalem might at this time have
+been avoided. It was deliberately sought. It was a going up to a triumph
+to be reached through defeat, a coronation to be attained through
+ignominy and humiliation.
+
+O believer, in your walk through the world to-day, be strengthened, be
+comforted, be inspired, by the spectacle of the Captain of your
+salvation thus going up to Jerusalem! And remember, in all those
+apparently _downward_ passages of life, where sorrow, and it may be
+death, lie before you, that all such descents, made or endured in the
+Spirit of Jesus, are really _upgoing_ steps, leading you to the mount of
+God and the resurrection glory.--_J. B. Stratton._
+
+
+=September 13th.=
+
+ _These were the potters, and those that dwelt among
+ plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for
+ his work. 1 Chron. iv. 23._
+
+Anywhere and everywhere we may dwell "with the King for His work." We
+may be in a very unlikely or unfavorable place for this; it may be in a
+little country life, with little enough to be seen of the "goings" of
+the King around us; it may be among hedges of all sorts, hindrances in
+all directions; it may be, furthermore, with our hands full of all
+manner of pottery for our daily task. No matter! The King who placed us
+"there" will come and dwell there with us; the hedges are all right, or
+He would soon do away with them; and it does not follow that what seems
+to hinder our way may not be for its very protection; and as for the
+pottery, why, this is just exactly what He has seen fit to put into our
+hands, and therefore it is, for the present, "His work."--_Frances
+Ridley Havergal._
+
+
+=September 14th.=
+
+ I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which
+ thou shalt go; _I will guide thee with mine eye. Psa.
+ xxxii. 8._
+
+When God does the directing, our life is useful and full of promise,
+whatever it is doing; and discipline has its perfecting work.--_H. E.
+Cobb._
+
+
+=September 15th.=
+
+ _The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to
+ minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.
+ Matt. xx. 28._
+
+We are so to surrender ourselves to Christ that this great purpose of
+His coming shall claim and possess the whole life. We are to live, like
+God, to bless others. This is His will, His purpose concerning us. This
+is what His power waits to do for us. And this too, is the claim of His
+great love upon us.
+
+Do not sigh a poor assent to the truth of it, and then pass by
+neglectfully on the other side. Do not think about it and pray about it
+without even a passing hope that the prayer will be answered. Do not
+gather yourself up in great resolutions to be good and useful. Kneel in
+sight of the Crucified. In the cross of Christ spell out His great
+purpose and yearning love to men. Let the heart feel all the might of
+the appeal that comes to us from those torn hands and feet and bleeding
+brow, from all the dreadful shame and agony of our dear Lord. And,
+bought and bound by all this, surrender yourself to Him for His great
+purpose. Take Him as your strength for this life-work.--_Mark Guy
+Pearse._
+
+
+=September 16th.=
+
+ _Jesus . . . went about doing good. Acts x. 38._
+
+The finest of all fine arts is the art of doing good; and yet it is the
+least cultivated.--_T. DeWitt Talmage._
+
+
+=September 17th.=
+
+ _And the angel of the Lord said unto her [Hagar],
+ Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her
+ hands. Gen. xvi. 9._
+
+SUBMISSION is a great Christian law, but we find it early in Genesis,
+early in the history of mankind, and angel-given.--_Selected._
+
+
+=September 18th.=
+
+ _Then spake Solomon . . . I have surely built thee an
+ house to dwell in. 1 Kings viii. 12, 13._
+
+Solomon, the prince of peace, alone could build the temple. If we would
+be soul-winners and build up the church, which is God's temple, let us
+note this; not by discussion nor by argument, but by lifting up Christ
+shall we draw men unto Him.--_J. Hudson Taylor._
+
+
+=September 19th.=
+
+ _I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Isa.
+ xlviii. 10._
+
+Does not the word come like a soft shower, assuaging the fury of the
+flame? Yea, is it not an asbestos armor, against which the heat hath no
+power? Let affliction come--God has chosen me. Poverty, thou mayest
+stride in at my door--but God is in the house already, and He has chosen
+me. Sickness, thou mayest intrude, but I have a balsam ready--God has
+chosen me. Whatever befalls me in this vale of tears I know that He has
+"chosen" me. Fear not, Christian; Jesus is with thee. In all thy fiery
+trials His presence is both thy comfort and safety. He will never leave
+one whom He has chosen for His own. "Fear not, for I am with thee," is
+His sure word of promise to His chosen ones in the "furnace of
+affliction."--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=September 20th.=
+
+ _Base things of the world and things which are
+ despised hath God chosen. 1 Cor. i. 28._
+
+In some of the great halls of Europe may be seen pictures not painted
+with the brush, but mosaics, which are made up of small pieces of stone,
+glass, or other material. The artist takes these little pieces, and,
+polishing and arranging them, he forms them into the grand and beautiful
+picture. Each individual part of the picture may be a little worthless
+piece of glass or marble or shell; but, with each in its place, the
+whole constitutes the masterpiece of art.
+
+So I think it will be with humanity in the hands of the great Artist.
+God is picking up the little worthless pieces of stone and brass that
+might be trodden under foot unnoticed, and is making of them His great
+masterpiece.--_Bishop Simpson._
+
+
+=September 21st.=
+
+ _Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His
+ presence with singing. Psa. c. 2._
+
+God wants our life to be a song. He has written the music for us in His
+Word and in the duties that come to us in our places and relations in
+life. The things we ought to do are the notes set upon the staff. To
+make our life beautiful music we must be obedient and submissive. Any
+disobedience is the singing of a false note, and yields discord.--_J. R.
+Miller._
+
+
+=September 22nd.=
+
+ _When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when
+ thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which is
+ in secret. Matt. vi. 6._
+
+This is faith's stronghold; here she weapons herself for the daily
+conflict. Silence in that closet of prayer bespeaks death throughout all
+the house. When that door is suffered to rust on its hinges, and that
+chamber is deserted, then the heart-house is soon retaken by Satan, and
+evil spirits come in and dwell there.--_Theodore Cuyler._
+
+
+=September 23rd.=
+
+ _Be ye holy; for I am holy. 1 Pet. i. 16._
+
+The highway of holiness is along the commonest road of life--along your
+very way. In wind and rain, no matter how it beats--it is only going
+hand in hand with Him.--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+=September 24th.=
+
+ _And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that
+ thing which I do? Gen. xviii. 17._
+
+Abraham, in communion with God, knew long before Lot, in Sodom, of the
+destruction of that city. Oh for more communion!--_Selected._
+
+
+=September 25th.=
+
+ _The life which I now live in the flesh. Gal. ii. 20._
+
+I expect to pass through this world but once--therefore, if there be any
+kindness I can show or any good thing I can do to any fellow human
+being, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not
+pass this way again.--_Marcus Aurelius._
+
+
+=September 26th.=
+
+ _So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our
+ hearts unto wisdom. Psa. xc. 12._
+
+Every day is a little life; and our whole life is but a day repeated:
+whence it is that old Jacob numbers his life by days; and Moses desires
+to be taught this point of holy arithmetic--to number not his years, but
+his days. Those, therefore, that dare lose a day, are dangerously
+prodigal; those that dare misspend it, desperate.--_Bishop Hall._
+
+
+=September 27th.=
+
+ _Christ in you the hope of glory. Col. i. 27._
+
+Religion is not the simple fire-escape that you build in anticipation of
+a possible danger, upon the outside of your dwelling, and leave there
+until danger comes. You go to it some morning when a fire breaks out in
+your house, and the poor old thing that you built up there, and thought
+that you could use some day, is so rusty and broken, and the weather has
+so beaten upon it and the sun so turned its hinges, that it will not
+work. That is the condition of a man who has built himself what seems a
+creed of faith, a trust in God in anticipation of the day when danger is
+to overtake him, and has said to himself, I am safe, for I will take
+refuge in it then. But religion is the house in which we live, it is the
+table at which we sit, it is the fireside at which we draw near, the
+room that arches its graceful and familiar presence over us; it is the
+bed on which we lie and think of the past, and anticipate the future,
+and gather our refreshment.--_Phillips Brooks._
+
+
+=September 28th.=
+
+ _Wait for the promise of the Father. Acts i. 4._
+
+Tarry at a promise till God meets you there. He always returns by way of
+His promises.--_Selected._
+
+
+=September 29th.=
+
+ _This is the victory that overcometh the world, even
+ our faith. 1 John v. 4._
+
+The world conquers me when it succeeds in hindering me from seeing,
+loving, holding communion with, and serving my Father, God. I conquer it
+when I lay my hand upon it and force it to help me to get nearer Him, to
+get more like Him, to think oftener of Him, to do His will more gladly
+and more constantly. The one victory over the world is to bend it to
+serve me in the highest things--the attainment of a clearer vision of
+the divine nature, the attainment of a deeper love to God Himself, and a
+more glad consecration and service to Him. That is the victory--when you
+can make the world a ladder to lift you to God. When the world comes
+between you and God as an obscuring screen, it has conquered you. When
+the world comes between you and God as a transparent medium you have
+conquered it. To win victory is to get it beneath your feet and stand
+upon it, and reach up thereby to God.--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=September 30th.=
+
+ _He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep
+ thee in all thy ways. Psa. xci. 11._
+
+Count no duty too little, no round of life too small, no work too low,
+if it come in thy way, since God thinks so much of it as to send His
+angels to guard thee in it.--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: October]
+
+
+=October 1st.=
+
+ _At Jesus' feet. Luke x. 39._
+
+At Jesus' feet--that is our place of privilege and of blessing, and here
+it is that we are to be educated and fitted for the practical duties of
+life. Here we are to renew our strength while we wait on Him, and to
+learn how to mount on wings as eagles; and here we are to become
+possessed of that true knowledge which is power. Here we are to learn
+how real work is to be done, and to be armed with the true motive power
+to do it. Here we are to find solace amidst both the trials of work--and
+they are not few--and the trials of life in general; and here we are to
+anticipate something of the blessedness of heaven amidst the days of
+earth; for to sit at His feet is indeed to be in heavenly places, and to
+gaze upon His glory is to do what we shall never tire of doing
+yonder.--_W. Hay Aitken._
+
+
+=October 2nd.=
+
+ _God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in
+ God, and God in him. 1 John iv. 16._
+
+_God is love_; and it is good, as it is true, to think that every
+sun-ray that touches the earth has the sun at the other end of it; so
+every bit of love upon God's earth has God at the other end of
+it.--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+_October 3rd._
+
+ _They took knowledge of them that they had been with
+ Jesus. Acts iv. 13._
+
+A Christian should be a striking likeness of Jesus Christ. You have read
+lives of Christ, beautifully and eloquently written, but the best life
+of Christ is His living biography, written out in the words and actions
+of His people. If we were what we profess to be, and what we should be,
+we would be pictures of Christ; yea, such striking likenesses of Him
+that the world would not have to hold us up by the hour together, and
+say, "Well, it seems somewhat of a likeness": but they would, when they
+once beheld us, exclaim, "He has been with Jesus; he has been taught of
+Him; he is like Him; he has caught the very idea of the holy Man of
+Nazareth, and he works it out in his life and every day
+actions."--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=October 4th.=
+
+ _Be not afraid, only believe. Mark v. 36._
+
+Be not downcast if difficulties and trials surround you in your heavenly
+life. They may be purposely placed there by God to train and discipline
+you for higher developments of faith. If He calls you to "toiling in
+rowing," it may be to make you the hardier seaman, to lead you to lift
+up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and, above all, to
+drive you to a holier trust in Him who has the vessel and its destinies
+in His hand, and who, amid gathering clouds and darkened horizon and
+crested billows is ever uttering the mild rebuke to our
+misgivings--"Said I not unto thee, if thou wouldest believe, thou
+shouldst see the glory of God."--_Macduff._
+
+
+=October 5th.=
+
+ _Happy is the man whom God correcteth. Job v. 17._
+
+Happy, because the correction is designed to bring him into paths of
+blessedness and peace.
+
+Happy, because there is no unnecessary severity in it.
+
+Happy, because the chastisement is not so much against us, as against
+our most cruel enemies--our sins.
+
+Happy, because we have abundant words of consolation.
+
+Happy, because whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.
+
+Happy, because our light affliction is but for a moment.--_George
+Bowen._
+
+
+=October 6th.=
+
+ _When they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding
+ great joy. Matt. ii. 10._
+
+We who look for Jesus ought to be joyful; it is no credit to our Lord
+when we look as though we were seeking His grave. The dull looks of
+Christ's followers have injured Him in the sight of the world. Let us,
+then, smile as we go, for we have the star if we will look up and put
+ourselves in the right path.--_Thos. Champness._
+
+
+=October 7th.=
+
+ _When I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto
+ me. Micah vii. 8._
+
+If you are willing to choose the seeming darkness of faith instead of
+the illumination of reason, wonderful light will break out upon you from
+the Word of God.--_A. J. Gordon._
+
+
+=October 8th.=
+
+ _I (Daniel) was left alone, and saw this great vision.
+ Dan. x. 8._
+
+Solitude is the antechamber of God; only one step more and you can be
+in His immediate presence.--_Landor._
+
+
+=October 9th.=
+
+ _Come and dine. John xxi. 12._
+
+This morning the voice of the Beloved of our soul is heard giving us His
+invitation.
+
+"Children," He asks, "have ye any meat?"
+
+We answer, "No; of ourselves we have nothing but hunger and starvation.
+O God, we cannot feed ourselves!"
+
+Then it is that His own sweet voice replies, "Come and dine!"--_W. Hay
+Aitken._
+
+
+=October 10th.=
+
+ _O Lord God, Thou knowest! Ezek. xxxvii. 3._
+
+Here is the response of faith. "Thou knowest!"--what a pillow for the
+heart to repose upon! "Thou knowest!"--what few but comprehensive words
+to sum up and express the heart's difficulties and perplexities and
+trials. "Thou knowest!"--what an inexpressibly sweet resting-place in
+the midst of life's tumultuous heavings; in the midst of a sea that
+knows no calm; in the midst of a scene in which tossings to and fro are
+the hourly history! What an answer they contain for every heart that can
+find no words to express its big emotions; for a heart whose sorrows are
+too deep for language to find its way to God! Oh, that they were ever
+uppermost in the soul, as the response to every difficulty in our path!
+They are God's answer to everything we cannot fathom; God's answer for
+our hearts to rest upon, and our lips to utter, when every way is hedged
+up so that we cannot pass. "O Lord God, thou knowest!" Rest here,
+believer. Lean thy soul on these words. Repose calmly on the bosom of
+thy God, and carry them with thee into every scene of life. "O Lord God,
+thou knowest."--_F. Whitfield._
+
+
+=October 11th.=
+
+ _Behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of
+ it reached to heaven. Gen. xxviii. 12._
+
+Think of that mystic ladder, which descends from the throne of God to
+the spot, however lowly, where you may be. It may be a moorland waste; a
+humble cottage; a ship's cabin; a settler's hut; a bed of pain; but
+Jesus Christ finds you out, and comes just where you are. The one pole
+of this ladder is the gold of His deity; the other is the silver of His
+manhood; the rungs are the series of events from the cradle of Bethlehem
+to the right hand of power, where He sits. That ladder sways beneath a
+weight of blessing for you. Oh, that you would send away your burdens of
+sin, and care, and fear, by the hands of the ascending angels of prayer
+and faith!--so as to be able to receive into your heart the trooping
+angels of peace, and joy, and love, and glory.--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+=October 12th.=
+
+ _Surely God is in this place, and I knew it not. Gen.
+ xxviii. 16._
+
+ The Parish Priest, of austerity,
+ Climbed up in the high church steeple
+ To be nearer God, that he might hand
+ His word down to the people.
+ And in sermon script he daily wrote
+ What he thought was sent from heaven;
+ And he dropped it down on the people's heads
+ Two times one day in seven.
+ In his age God said, "Come down and die."
+ And he cried out from the steeple:
+ "Where art thou, Lord?" And the Lord replied:
+ "Down here among My people."--_Selected._
+
+
+=October 13th.=
+
+ _Now therefore, hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes
+ and unto the judgments which I teach you, for to do
+ them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land
+ which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. Deut.
+ iv. 1._
+
+"Hearken" and "do," that ye may "live" and "possess." This is a
+universal and abiding principle. It was true for Israel, and it is true
+for us. The pathway of life and the true secret of possession is simple
+obedience to the holy commandments of God. We see this all through the
+inspired volume, from cover to cover. God has given us His Word, not to
+speculate upon it or discuss it, but that we may obey it. And it is as
+we, through grace, yield a hearty and happy obedience to our Father's
+statutes and judgments, that we tread the bright pathway of life, and
+enter into the reality of all that God has treasured up for us in
+Christ.--_C. H. M._
+
+
+=October 14th.=
+
+ _I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the
+ life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith
+ of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for
+ me. Gal. ii. 20._
+
+The man who lives in God knows no life except the life of
+God.--_Phillips Brooks._
+
+
+=October 15th.=
+
+ _Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the
+ breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the
+ hope of salvation. 1 Thess. v. 8._
+
+_Faith, love, hope_--these three form the defensive armor that guards
+the soul; and these three make self-control possible. Like a diver in
+his dress who is let down to the bottom of the wild, far-weltering
+ocean, a man whose heart is girt by faith and charity, and whose head is
+covered with the helmet of hope, may be dropped down into the wildest
+sea of temptation and of worldliness, and yet will walk dry and unharmed
+through the midst of its depths, and breathe air that comes from a world
+above the restless surges. _Faith_ will bring you into communication
+with all the power of God. _Love_ will lead you into a region where all
+the temptations round you will be touched as by Ithuriel's spear, and
+will show their own foulness. And _Hope_ will turn away your eyes from
+looking at the tempting splendor around, and fix them upon the glories
+that are above. And so the reins will come into your hands in an
+altogether new manner, and you will be able to be king over your own
+nature in a fashion that you did not dream of before, if only you will
+trust in Christ and love Him, and fix your desires on the things above.
+Then you will be able to govern yourself, when you let Christ govern
+you.--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=October 16th.=
+
+ _The word of our God shall stand forever. Isa. xl. 8._
+
+The Word of God is the water of life; the more ye lave it forth, the
+fresher it runneth. It is the fire of God's glory; the more ye blow it,
+the clearer it burneth. It is the corn of the Lord's field; the better
+ye grind it, the more it yieldeth. It is the bread of heaven; the more
+it is broken and given forth, the more it remaineth. It is the sword of
+the Spirit; the more it is scoured, the brighter it shineth.--_Bishop
+Jewel._
+
+
+=October 17th.=
+
+ _I spake unto thee in thy prosperity. Jer. xxii. 21._
+
+We shade our eyes with the hand to shut out the glare of the strong
+daylight when we want to see far away. God thus puts, as it were, His
+hand upon our brows, and tempers the glow of prosperity, that we may
+take in the wider phases of His goodness. It is a common experience
+that, looking out from the gloom of some personal affliction, men have
+seen for the first time beyond the earth plane, and caught glimpses of
+the Beulah Land. Let us not shrink from the Hand which we know is heavy
+only with blessing.--_Ludlow._
+
+
+=October 18th.=
+
+ _Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the
+ fowler. Psa. xci. 3._
+
+_He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler._ That is, from the
+little things, the hidden traps and nets that are set for us. Great sins
+frighten where little snares entangle. It is easier to escape the
+huntsman's arrow than the crafty lure.
+
+And where are they not set? Riches and poverty, sickness and strength,
+prosperity and adversity, friendship and loneliness, the work and the
+want of it--each has its snare, wherein not only are the unwary caught,
+but the wise and the watchful sometimes fall a prey. Little things, mere
+threads, hardly worth guarding against--yet they are strong enough to
+hold us and hinder us, and may be the beginning of our destruction.--_Mark
+Guy Pearse._
+
+
+=October 19th.=
+
+ _The Lord set a mark upon Cain. Gen. iv. 15._
+
+We speak of the mark of Cain as if it was the mark of a curse. In
+reality it was the mark of God's mercy, a defence against his
+enemies.--_D. J. Burrell._
+
+
+=October 20th.=
+
+ _Who is among you that feareth the Lord . . . that
+ walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let him trust
+ in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. Isa.
+ l. 10._
+
+"In fierce storms," said an old seaman, "we can do but one thing, there
+is only one way; we must put the ship in a certain position and keep her
+there."
+
+This, Christian, is what you must do. Sometimes, like Paul, you can see
+neither sun nor stars, and no small tempest lies on you; and then you
+can do but one thing; there is only one way. Reason cannot help you.
+Past experiences give you no light. Even prayer fetches no consolation.
+Only a single course is left. You must put your soul in one position and
+keep it there. You must stay upon the Lord; and, come what may--winds,
+waves, cross seas, thunder, lightning, frowning rocks, roaring
+breakers--no matter what, you must lash yourself to the helm, and hold
+fast your confidence in God's faithfulness, His covenant engagement, His
+everlasting love in Christ Jesus.--_Richard Fuller._
+
+
+=October 21st.=
+
+ _Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a
+ crown of life. Rev. ii. 10._
+
+There is a heaven at the end of every faithful Christian's
+journey.--_Cuyler._
+
+
+=October 22nd.=
+
+ _Flee into Egypt. Matt. ii. 13._
+
+Why? Because there is a cruel king who will seek the young child's life.
+
+Is Christ born in thee? Is thy life like that manger--precious as a
+casket, because of what it holds? Then have a care; for, craftier and
+more unscrupulous than Herod, the destroyer of souls will seek to
+destroy thee.
+
+There is a day coming when they shall say, "They are dead which sought
+the young child's life." Grace shall survive the foe, and we shall yet
+return to enjoy the comforts of life, with no Herod to threaten us.
+After all, it is sin which is short-lived, for goodness shall flourish
+when the evil one is chained up for ever.--_Thos. Champness._
+
+
+=October 23rd.=
+
+ _As my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant
+ do. 1 Kings ii. 38._
+
+There is something infinitely better than doing a great thing for God,
+and the infinitely better thing is to be where God wants us to be, to do
+what God wants us to do, and to have no will apart from His.--_G.
+Campbell Morgan._
+
+
+=October 24th.=
+
+ _Let your light so shine before men, that they may see
+ your good works, and glorify your Father which is in
+ heaven. Matt. v. 16._
+
+They say the world has an eagle eye for anything inconsistent, an eye
+sharp to discover the vagaries and inconsistencies in the defaulty and
+the unworthy. It has an eagle eye; but the eagle winks before the sun,
+and the burning iris of its eye shrinks abashed before the unsullied
+purity of noon. Let your light so shine before men, that others, awed
+and charmed by the consistency of your godly life, may come to enquire,
+and to say you have been with Jesus.--_Punshon._
+
+
+=October 25th.=
+
+ _The eleven disciples went . . . into a mountain where
+ Jesus had appointed them . . . Jesus came and spake
+ unto them saying . . . Go ye and teach all nations.
+ Matt. xxviii. 16, 18, 19._
+
+The considerable actions in the world have usually very small
+beginnings. Of a few letters, how many thousand words are made! Of ten
+figures, how many thousand numbers! A point is the beginning of all
+geometry. A little stone flung into a pond makes a little circle, then a
+greater, till it enlarges itself to both the sides. So from small
+beginnings God doth cause an efflux through the whole world.--_Charnock._
+
+
+=October 26th.=
+
+ _Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which
+ shall be to all people. Luke ii. 10._
+
+It is true that these good tidings of great joy were to be "for all
+people," but not _first_. The message falls on our own ears, and is
+first for our own souls.
+
+Oh, ponder this well! Take all God's truths home _first_ to thine own
+heart. Ask in earnest prayer that the Spirit may write them with the pen
+of heaven on thine own conscience. Then wilt thou be a vessel fitted for
+the Master's use, and carry His message with spiritual power to the
+souls of others.--_F. Whitfield._
+
+
+=October 27th.=
+
+ _Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Heb. xii. 6._
+
+Earthly prosperity is no sign of the special love of heaven: nor are
+sorrow and care any mark of God's disfavor, but the reverse. God's love
+is robust, and true, and eager--not for our comfort, but for our lasting
+blessedness; it is bent on achieving this, and it is strong enough to
+bear misrepresentation and rebuke in its attempts to attune our spirits
+to higher music. It therefore comes instructing us. Let us enter
+ourselves as pupils in the school of God's love. Let us lay aside our
+own notions of the course of study; let us submit ourselves to be led
+and taught; let us be prepared for any lessons that may be given from
+the blackboard of sorrow: let us be so assured of the inexhaustible
+tenacity of His love as to dare to trust Him, though He slay us. And let
+us look forward to that august moment when He will give us a reason for
+all life's discipline, with a smile that shall thrill our souls with
+ecstasy, and constrain sorrow and sighing to flee away forever.--_F. B.
+Meyer._
+
+
+=October 28th.=
+
+ _Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He
+ will give it you. John xvi. 23._
+
+Prayer must be based upon promise, but, thank God, His promises are
+always broader than our prayers! No fear of building inverted pyramids
+here, for Jesus Christ is the foundation.--_Frances Ridley Havergal._
+
+
+=October 29th.=
+
+ _He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments;
+ and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He
+ poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the
+ disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel
+ wherewith He was girded. John xiii. 4, 5._
+
+Acts are common and mean because they are ordinarily expressive of the
+common and mean thoughts of men. Let us not accuse the acts that make up
+our daily life of meanness, but our ignoble souls that reveal themselves
+so unworthily through those acts. The same act may successively mount up
+through every intermediate stage from the depth of unworthiness to a
+transcendent height of excellence, according to the soul that is
+manifested by it. One of the glorious ends of our Lord's incarnation was
+that He might propitiate us with the details of life, so that we should
+not disdain these as insignificant, but rather disdain ourselves for our
+inability to make these details interpreters of a noble nature. Oh, let
+us then look with affectionateness and gratitude upon the daily details
+of life, seeing the sanctifying imprint of the hand of Jesus upon them
+all!--_George Bowen._
+
+
+=October 30th.=
+
+ _He placed . . . cherubims, and a flaming sword . . .
+ to keep the way of the tree of life. Gen. iii. 24._
+
+ _Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they
+ may have right to the tree of life. Rev. xxii. 14._
+
+How remarkable and how beautiful it is that the last page of the
+Revelation should come bending round to touch the first page of Genesis.
+The history of man began with angels with frowning faces and flaming
+swords barring the way to the Tree of Life. It ends with the guard of
+cherubim withdrawn; or rather, perhaps, sheathing their swords and
+becoming guides to the no longer forbidden fruit, instead of being its
+guards. That is the Bible's grand symbolical way of saying that all
+between--the sin, the misery, the death--is a parenthesis. God's purpose
+is not going to be thwarted. The end of His majestic march through
+history is to be men's access to the Tree of Life, from which, for the
+dreary ages--that are but as a moment in the great eternities--they were
+barred out by their sin,--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=October 31st.=
+
+ _That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
+ glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and
+ revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your
+ understanding being enlightened. Eph. i. 17, 18._
+
+We were coming down a mountain in Switzerland one evening, when a black
+thunder-storm blotted out the day, and all things were suddenly plunged
+into darkness. We could only dimly see the narrow, dusty footpaths, and
+the gloomy sides that were swallowed up in deeper gloom. What, then, of
+the majesty all about us, heights, and depths, and wonders? All was
+darkness. Then came the lightning--not flashes, but the blazing of the
+whole sky, incessant, and on every side. What recesses of glory we gazed
+into! What marvels of splendor shone out of the darkness!
+
+Think how with us, in us, is One who comes to make the common, dusty
+ways of life resplendent, illuminating our dull thoughts by the light of
+the glory of God; clearing the vision of the soul, and then revealing
+the greatness of the salvation that is ours in Christ.--_Mark Guy
+Pearse._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: November]
+
+
+=November 1st.=
+
+ _Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the
+ midst. John viii. 9._
+
+Alone with Jesus! What a sweet and holy spot! What a blessed refuge to
+which the soul may betake itself from the charges of Satan, the
+accusations of the world, and the sorrows of life! Sweet spot for the
+heart to unfold itself, to tell its hidden tale in the ear of Infinite
+love, tenderness, and compassion!
+
+Alone with Jesus! How different a front would Christianity present to
+the world if the Lord's people were oftener there! What humility, and
+gentleness, and love, would characterize all their dealings! What
+holiness stamped on the very brow, that all might read! What few
+judgments passed on others, how many more on ourselves! What calmness
+and resignation and joyful submission to all the Lord's dealings!
+
+Be much "alone with Jesus!" Then will the passage to glory be one of
+sunshine, whether it be through the portals of the grave or through the
+clouds of heaven.--_F. Whitfield._
+
+
+=November 2nd.=
+
+ _Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence
+ is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are
+ pleasures for evermore. Psa. xvi. 11._
+
+The man who walks along the path of life lives in the presence of the
+joy-giving God. Just in so far as he is true to that path of life, and
+wanders neither to the right hand nor to the left, his joy becomes
+deeper, nay! he becomes partaker of that very fullness of joy in which
+God Himself lives, and moves, and has His being. And while such is his
+experience in the midst of all the trials of life, he has also the
+privilege of looking forward to grander things yet in store for him,
+when that higher world shall be reached, and the shadows of time have
+passed away forever. "At Thy right hand," exclaims the psalmist, "there
+are pleasures for evermore."--_W. Hay Aitken._
+
+
+=November 3rd.=
+
+ _Be clothed with humility. 1 Pet. v. 5._
+
+Is it not one of the difficulties of church work that we have more
+officers than men? We need more of the rank and file, who are willing to
+march anywhere, and to do the lowliest of tasks. We shall succeed in
+doing greater things when we are all of us willing to be subject. It is
+the bayonet rather than the gold lace which is wanted when the enemy is
+to be subdued.--_Thomas Champness._
+
+
+=November 4th.=
+
+ _Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold,
+ Esau came, and with him four hundred men. Gen. xxxiii.
+ 1._
+
+Do not lift up your eyes and look for Esaus. Those who look for troubles
+will not be long without finding trouble to look at. Lift them
+higher--to Him from whom our help cometh. Then you will be able to meet
+your troubles with an unperturbed spirit. Those who have seen the face
+of God need not fear the face of man that shall die. To have power with
+God is to have power over all the evils that threaten us.--_F. B.
+Meyer._
+
+
+=November 5th.=
+
+ _Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the
+ flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of
+ God. 2 Cor. vii. 1._
+
+The Tree of Life, according to some of the old rabbinical legends,
+lifted its branches, by an indwelling motion, high above impure hands
+that were stretched to touch them; and until our hands are cleansed
+through faith in Jesus Christ, its richest fruit hangs unreachable,
+golden above our heads. The fullness of the life of heaven is only
+granted to those who, drawing near Jesus Christ by faith on earth, have
+thereby cleansed themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and
+spirit.--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=November 6th.=
+
+ _The pillar of the cloud went from before their face,
+ and stood behind them. Ex. xiv. 19._
+
+It is not always guidance that we most need. Many of our dangers come
+upon us from behind. They are stealthy, insidious, assaulting us when we
+are unaware of their nearness. The tempter is cunning and shrewd. He
+does not meet us full front. It is a comfort to know that Christ comes
+behind us when it is there we need the protection.--_J. R. Miller._
+
+
+=November 7th.=
+
+ _Iniquities prevail against me: as for our
+ transgressions, Thou shall purge them away. Psa. lxv.
+ 3._
+
+There is much earnest religion that lives in the dreary compass of these
+first four words, "Iniquities prevail against me," and never gets a
+glimpse beyond it. But do not put a full stop there. Fetch in One who
+can help. "As for our transgressions, THOU shalt purge them away." The
+moment we bring the Lord in, that moment defeat is turned to triumphant
+deliverance!
+
+Write that up in golden letters--THOU! And do not find in this word only
+a trembling hope, or a wondering wish. Listen to its full
+assurance--THOU SHALT!
+
+There is but one result that can warrant the agony of Calvary; there is
+but one result that can satisfy either our blessed Savior or ourselves;
+and that is our being conquerors over sin.--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+=November 8th.=
+
+ _Speaking the truth in love. Eph. iv. 15._
+
+The best way of eradicating error is to publish and practice truth.--_W.
+Arnot._
+
+
+=November 9th.=
+
+ _So he arose, and went to Zarephath. 1 Kings xvii.
+ 10._
+
+Let it be equally said of you to whatever duty the Lord may call you
+away, "He arose and went." Be the way ever so laborious or dangerous,
+still arise, like Elijah, and go. Go cheerfully, in faith, keeping your
+heart quietly dependent on the Lord, and in the end you will surely
+behold and sing of His goodness. Though tossed on a sea of troubles you
+may anchor on the firm foundation of God, which standeth sure. You have
+for your security His exceeding great and precious promises, and may say
+with the psalmist, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou
+disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him who
+is the health of my countenance, and my God."--_F. W. Krummacher._
+
+
+=November 10th.=
+
+ _A daily rate for every day. 2 Kings xxv. 30._
+
+The acts of breathing which I performed yesterday will not keep me alive
+to-day; I must continue to breathe afresh every moment, or animal life
+ceases. In like manner yesterday's grace and spiritual strength must be
+renewed, and the Holy Spirit must continue to breathe on my soul from
+moment to moment in order to my enjoying the consolations, and to my
+working the works of God.--_Toplady._
+
+
+=November 11th.=
+
+ _And when the vessel that he made of the clay was
+ marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again
+ another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make
+ it. Jer. xviii. 4. (R. V.)_
+
+God's fairest, highest place of service in the land that lies beyond
+will be filled by the men and women who have been broken upon the wheel
+on earth.--_G. Campbell Morgan._
+
+
+=November 12th.=
+
+ _Examine yourselves. 2 Cor. xiii. 5._
+
+If your state be good, searching into it will give you that comfort of
+it. If your state be bad, searching into it cannot make it worse; nay,
+it is the only way to make it better, for conversion begins with
+conviction.--_Bishop Hopkins._
+
+
+=November 13th.=
+
+ _Choose you this day whom ye will serve. Josh. xxiv.
+ 15._
+
+CHOICE AND SERVICE--these were demanded of the Israelites; these are
+demanded of you, these only. Choice and service--in these are the whole
+of life.--_Mark Hopkins._
+
+
+=November 14th.=
+
+ _Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all
+ generations. Psa. xc. 1._
+
+You cannot detain the eagle in the forest. You may gather around him a
+chorus of the choicest birds; you may give him a perch on the goodliest
+pine; you may charge winged messengers to bring him choicest dainties;
+but he will spurn them all. Spreading his lordly wings, and with his eye
+on the Alpine cliff, he will soar away to his own ancestral halls amid
+the munitions of rocks and the wild music of tempest and waterfall.
+
+The soul of man, in its eagle soarings, will rest with nothing short of
+the Rock of Ages. Its ancestral halls are the halls of heaven. Its
+munitions of rocks are the attributes of God. The sweep of its majestic
+flight is Eternity! "Lord, THOU hast been our dwelling place in all
+generations!"--_Macduff._
+
+
+=November 15th.=
+
+ _He hath said. Heb. xiii. 5._
+
+If we can only grasp these words of faith, we have an all-conquering
+weapon in our hand. What doubt is there that will not be slain by this
+two-edged sword? What fear is there which shall not fall smitten with a
+deadly wound before this arrow from the bow of God's covenant? "He hath
+said!" Yes; whether for delight in our quietude, or for strength in our
+conflict, "He hath said!" must be our daily resort.
+
+Since "He hath said" is the source of all wisdom, and the fountain of
+all comfort, let it dwell in you richly, as "a well of water, springing
+up unto everlasting life." So shall you grow healthy, strong, and happy,
+in the divine life.--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=November 16th.=
+
+ _Not I, but Christ liveth in me. Gal. ii. 20._
+
+The wonder of the life in Jesus is this--and you will find it so, and
+you have found it so, if you have ever taken your New Testament and
+tried to make it the rule of your daily life--that there is not a single
+action that you are called upon to do of which you need be, of which you
+will be, in any serious doubt for ten minutes as to what Jesus Christ,
+if He were here, Jesus Christ being here, would have you do under those
+circumstances and with the material upon which you are called to act.
+The soul that takes in Jesus' word, the soul that through the words of
+Jesus enters into the very person of Jesus, the soul that knows Him as
+its daily presence and its daily law--it never hesitates.--_Phillips
+Brooks._
+
+
+=November 17th.=
+
+ _Who is my neighbor? Luke x. 29._
+
+"Who is thy neighbor?" It is the sufferer, wherever, whoever, whatsoever
+he be. Wherever thou hearest the cry of distress, wherever thou seest
+anyone brought across thy path by the chances and changes of life (that
+is, by the Providence of God), whom it is in thy power to help--he,
+stranger or enemy though he be--_he_ is thy neighbor.--_A. P. Stanley._
+
+
+=November 18th.=
+
+ _He which stablisheth us . . . in Christ, and hath
+ anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and
+ given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. 2 Cor.
+ i. 21, 22._
+
+When a Christian is "sealed" by the Holy Ghost, "sealed" as the property
+of his Master, there will be no need to ask, "Whose image and
+superscription is this" upon the "sealed" one? The King's, of course.
+Anyone can see the image.
+
+Of what use is a "seal" if it cannot be seen?
+
+Is the King's image visibly, permanently, stamped upon us? It is on
+every Spirit-filled, "sealed" believer.--_John McNeil._
+
+
+=November 19th.=
+
+ _They shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the
+ hand of Zerubbabel. Zech. iv. 10._
+
+It is joy to the Christian to know that the plummet is now in the hands
+of our great Zerubbabel, and that when He comes forth, the world's
+misrule shall be over. The false standards and false estimates of men
+shall be swept away. The standards of "expediency," of "conscience," of
+"every man thinking as he likes, if he is only _sincere_"--these, and
+all similar refuges of lies shall be like a spider's web. The measure of
+all things will be Christ, and Christ the Measurer of all things.
+
+How everything will be reversed! What a turning upside down of all that
+now exists!
+
+Blessed day, and longed for--the world's great jubilee, the earth's
+long-looked-for Sabbath, groaning creation's joy, and nature's calm
+repose! Who would not cry, "Come, Lord Jesus, and end this troubled
+dream! Shatter the shadows of the long, dark night of sin and sorrow,
+sighing and tears, despair and death!"--_F. Whitfield._
+
+
+=November 20th.=
+
+ _In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of
+ good cheer; I have overcome the world. John xvi. 33._
+
+Tribulation is God's threshing--not to destroy us, but to get what is
+good, heavenly, and spiritual in us separated from what is wrong,
+earthly, and fleshly. Nothing less than blows of pain will do this. The
+evil clings so to the good, the golden wheat of goodness in us is so
+wrapped up in the strong chaff of the old life that only the heavy flail
+of suffering can produce the separation.--_J. R. Miller._
+
+
+=November 21st.=
+
+ _I . . . heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
+ saying . . . Write. Rev. i. 10, 11._
+
+It is very sweet to note that a voice from heaven said to John, "Write."
+Does not that voice come to us? Are there not those who would taste the
+joys of heaven if we wrote them words of forgiveness and affection? Are
+there not others who would dry their tears if we would remind them of
+past joys, when we were poor as they are now? Nay, could not some, who
+read these plain words, place inside the envelope something bearing
+their signature which would make the widow's heart dance for joy?
+
+What is our pen doing? Is it adding joy to other men's lives? If so,
+then angels may tune their harps when we sit at our desk. They are sent
+to minister to the heirs of salvation, and would be glad to look upon
+our pen as writing music for them to sing, because what we write makes
+their client's joy to be full.--_Thomas Champness._
+
+
+=November 22nd.=
+
+ _Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Heb. xii. 6._
+
+We should ever bear in mind that the discipline of our heavenly Father's
+hand is to be interpreted in the light of our Father's countenance; and
+the deep mysteries of His moral government to be contemplated through
+the medium or His tender love.--_Selected._
+
+
+=November 23rd.=
+
+ _Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.
+ 1 Thess. v. 24._
+
+Earthly faithfulness is possible only by the reception of heavenly
+gifts. As surely as every leaf that grows is mainly water that the plant
+has got from the clouds, and carbon that it has got out of the
+atmosphere, so surely will all our good be mainly drawn from heaven and
+heaven's gifts. As certainly as every lump of coal that you put upon
+your fire contains in itself sunbeams that have been locked up for all
+these millenniums that have passed since it waved green in the forest,
+so certainly does every good deed embody in itself gifts from above. And
+no man is pure except by impartation; and every good thing and every
+perfect thing cometh from the Father of lights.--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=November 24th.=
+
+ _Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Col.
+ iii. 16._
+
+Remember your life is to be a singing life. This world is God's grand
+cathedral for you. You are to be one of God's choristers, and there is
+to be a continual eucharistic sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving going
+up from your heart, with which God shall be continually well pleased.
+And there should be not only the offering of the lips, but the surrender
+of the life with joy. Yes, with _joy_, and not with _constraint_. Every
+faculty of our nature should be presented to Him in gladsome service,
+for the Lord Jehovah is my song as well as my strength.--_W. Hay
+Aitken._
+
+
+=November 25th.=
+
+ _Call to remembrance the former days. Heb. x. 32._
+
+_The former days_--times of trial, conflict, discouragement, temptation.
+Did we oftener call these to remembrance, with how much more delight
+would we make the covert of God's faithfulness our refuge, exclaiming
+with the psalmist, "Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the
+shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice."--_R. Fuller._
+
+
+=November 26th.=
+
+ _The Lord . . . thy habitation. Psa. xci. 9._
+
+We go home without arrangement. We plan our visits, and then go home
+because they are over. Duty, want, a host of things, lead us forth
+elsewhere; but the heart takes us home. Blessed, most blessed is he
+whose thoughts pass up to God, not because they are driven like a
+fisherman's craft swept by the fierceness of the storm, not because they
+are forced by want or fear, not because they are led by the hand of
+duty, but because God is in his habitation and his home. Loosed from
+other things, the thoughts go home for rest.
+
+In God the blessed man finds the love that welcomes. There is the sunny
+place. There care is loosed and toil forgotten. There is the joyous
+freedom, the happy calm, the rest, and renewing of our strength--at home
+with God.--_Mark Guy Pearse._
+
+
+=November 27th.=
+
+ _These have turned the world upside down. Acts xvii.
+ 6._
+
+ _None of these things move me. Acts xx. 24._
+
+The men that move the world are the ones who do not let the world move
+them.--_Selected._
+
+
+=November 28th.=
+
+ _He touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew
+ that shrank. Gen. xxxii. 32._
+
+Whatever it is that enables a soul, whom God designs to bless, to stand
+out against Him, God will touch. It may be the pride of wealth, or of
+influence, or of affection; but it will not be spared--God will touch
+it. It may be something as _natural_ as a sinew; but if it robs a man of
+spiritual blessing God will touch it. It may be as _small_ a thing as a
+sinew; but its influence in making a man strong in his resistance of
+blessing will be enough to condemn it--and God will touch it. And
+beneath that touch it will shrink and shrivel, and you will limp to the
+end of life.
+
+Remember that the sinew never shrinks save beneath the touch of the
+angel hand--the touch of tender love.--_F. B. Meyer._
+
+
+=November 29th.=
+
+ _With God all things are possible. Mark x. 27._
+
+Unbelief says, "How can such and such things be?" It is full of "hows";
+but faith has one great answer to the ten thousand "hows," and that
+answer is--GOD!--_C. H. M._
+
+
+=November 30th.=
+
+ _Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath
+ said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them. 2 Cor.
+ vi. 16._
+
+These temples were reared for Him. Let Him fill them so completely that,
+like the oriental temple of glass in the ancient legend, the temple
+shall not be seen, but only the glorious sunlight, which not only shines
+into it, but through it, and the transparent walls are all unseen.--_A.
+B. Simpson._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: DECEMBER]
+
+
+=December 1st.=
+
+ _Without Christ. Eph. ii. 12._
+
+Without a hope to cheer, a Pilot to steer, a Friend to counsel, grace to
+sustain, heaven to welcome us, and God to console!--_Selected._
+
+
+=December 2nd.=
+
+ _When I am weak, then am I strong. 2 Cor. xii. 10._
+
+This is God's way. We advance by going backwards, we become strong by
+becoming weak, we become wise by being fools.--_F. Whitfield._
+
+
+=December 3rd.=
+
+ _Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
+ Ghost. 2 Pet. i. 21._
+
+The Bible is the writing of the living God. Each letter was penned with
+an almighty finger. Each word in it dropped from the everlasting lips.
+Each sentence was dictated by the Holy Spirit. Albeit that Moses was
+employed to write his histories with his fiery pen, God guided that pen.
+It may be that David touched his harp, and let sweet psalms of melody
+drop from his fingers; but God moved his hands over the living strings
+of his golden harp. Solomon sang canticles of love and gave forth words
+of consummate wisdom; but God directed his lips, and made the preacher
+eloquent. If I follow the thundering Nahum, when his horses plough the
+waters; or Habakkuk, when he sees the tents of Cushan in affliction; if
+I read Malachi, when the earth is burning like an oven; if I turn to the
+smooth page of John, who tells of love; or the rugged chapters of Peter,
+who speaks of fire devouring God's enemies; if I turn aside to Jude, who
+launches forth anathemas upon the foes of God--everywhere I find God
+speaking; it is God's voice, not man's; the words are God's words; the
+words of the Eternal, the Invisible, the Almighty, the Jehovah of ages.
+This Bible is God's Bible; and when I see it, I seem to hear a voice
+springing up from it, saying, "I am the Book of God. Man, read me. I am
+God's writing. Study my page, for I was penned by God. Love me, for He
+is my Author, and you will see Him visible and manifest
+everywhere."--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=December 4th.=
+
+ _They all forsook Him, and fled. Mark xiv. 50._
+
+Separation never comes from His side.--_J. Hudson Taylor._
+
+
+=December 5th.=
+
+ _Belshazzar the king made a great feast. Dan. v. 1._
+
+There was one Guest not invited, but He came, and the work of His finger
+glowed upon the wall.--_Selected._
+
+
+=December 6th.=
+
+ _He that watereth shall be watered also himself. Prov.
+ xi. 25._
+
+The effective life and the receptive life are one. No sweep of arm that
+does some work for God but harvests also some more of the truth of God,
+and sweeps it into the treasury of life.--_Phillips Brooks._
+
+
+=December 7th.=
+
+ _And they came unto Him, bringing one sick of the
+ palsy. Mark ii. 3._
+
+Had it not been for the palsy, this man might never have seen
+Christ!--_Selected._
+
+
+=December 8th.=
+
+ _Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His
+ benefits . . . who crowneth thee with loving kindness
+ and tender mercies. Ps. ciii. 2, 4._
+
+We talk about the telescope of faith, but I think we want even more the
+microscope of watchful and grateful love. Apply this to the little bits
+of our daily lives, in the light of the Spirit, and how wonderfully they
+come out!--_Frances Ridley Havergal._
+
+
+=December 9th.=
+
+ _When thou passest through the waters I will be with
+ thee. Is. xliii. 2._
+
+God's presence in the trial is much better than exemption from the
+trial. The sympathy of His heart with us is sweeter far than the power
+of His hand for us.--_Selected._
+
+
+=December 10th.=
+
+ _Then shall ye discern between the righteous and the
+ wicked. Mal. iii. 18._
+
+Said Anne of Austria to Cardinal Richelieu: "God does not pay at the end
+of every week, but He pays at last!"--_Selected._
+
+
+=December 11th.=
+
+ _What is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeared
+ for a little time, and then vanisheth away. James iv.
+ 14._
+
+ "Only one life; 'twill soon be past--
+ And only what's done for Christ will last."--_Selected._
+
+
+=December 12th.=
+
+ _He (Jesus) . . . looked up to heaven. Mark vi. 41._
+
+In working for God, first look to heaven. It is a grand plan. Over and
+over again our Lord Jesus Christ looked to heaven and said, "Father."
+Let us imitate Him; although standing on the earth, let us have our
+conversation in heaven. Before you go out, if you would feed the world,
+if you would be a blessing in the midst of spiritual dearth and famine,
+lift up your head to heaven. Then your very face will shine, your very
+garments will smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory
+palaces where you have been with your God and Savior. There will be
+stamped upon you the dignity and power of the service of the Most High
+God.--_McNeil._
+
+
+=December 13th.=
+
+ _The disciples were called Christians first in
+ Antioch. Acts xi. 26._
+
+This name suggests that the clear impression made by our character, as
+well as by our words, should be that we belong to Jesus Christ. He
+should manifestly be the center and the guide, the impulse and the
+pattern, the strength and reward, of our lives. We are Christians. That
+should be plain for all folks to see, whether we speak or be silent.
+
+Is it so with you?--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=December 14th.=
+
+ _Having therefore these promises. 2 Cor. vii. 1._
+
+The forests in summer days are full of birds' nests. They are hidden
+among the leaves. The little birds know where they are; and when a storm
+arises, or when night draws on, they fly, each to his own nest. So the
+promises of God are hidden in the Bible, like nests in the great
+forests; and thither we should fly in any danger or alarm, hiding there
+in our soul's nest until the storm be overpast. There are no castles in
+this world so impregnable as the words of Christ.--_J. R. Miller._
+
+
+=December 15th.=
+
+ _Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the
+ greatest of these is love. 1 Cor. xiii. 13. (R. V.)_
+
+Love is the greatest thing that God can give us: for Himself is Love;
+and it is the greatest thing we can give to God: for it will give
+ourselves, and carry with it all that is ours.--_Jeremy Taylor._
+
+
+=December 16th.=
+
+ _He (Thomas) . . . said, Except I shall see . . . I
+ will not believe. . . . Jesus . . . said . . . Be not
+ faithless, but believing. John xx. 25, 27._
+
+Every doubt in the heart of a Christian is a dishonor done to the Word
+of God, and the sacrifice of Christ.--_Selected._
+
+
+=December 17th.=
+
+ _Lot . . . pitched his tent toward Sodom. Gen. xiii.
+ 12._
+
+And soon Lot moved into Sodom; and before long Sodom moved into
+him.--_Theodore Cuyler._
+
+
+=December 18th.=
+
+ _Cleanse Thou me from secret faults. Psa. xix. 12._
+
+The world needs men who are free from secret faults. Most men are free
+from gross, public faults.--_Selected._
+
+
+=December 19th.=
+
+ _A hearer of the word . . . a doer of the work. Jas. i.
+ 23, 25._
+
+Religion may be learned on Sunday, but it is lived in the week-day's
+work. The torch of religion may be lit in the church, but it does its
+burning in the shop and on the street. Religion seeks its life in
+prayer, but it lives its life in deeds. It is planted in the closet, but
+it does its growing out in the world. It plumes itself for flight in
+songs of praise, but its actual flights are in works of love. It
+resolves and meditates on faithfulness as it reads its Christian lesson
+in the Book of Truth, but "faithful is that faithful does." It puts its
+armor on in all the aids and helps of the sanctuary as its
+dressing-room, but it combats for the right, the noble, and the good in
+all the activities of practical existence, and its battle ground is the
+whole broad field of life.--_John Doughty._
+
+
+=December 20th.=
+
+ _Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. James iv.
+ 14._
+
+"To-morrow" is the devil's great ally--the very Goliath in whom he
+trusts for victory. "Now" is the stripling sent forth against him. . . .
+The world will freely agree to be Christians to-morrow if Christ will
+permit them to be worldly to-day.--_William Arnot._
+
+
+=December 21st.=
+
+ _The sea wrought, and was tempestuous. Jonah i. 11._
+
+Sin in the soul is like Jonah in the ship. It turns the smoothest water
+into a tempestuous sea.--_Selected._
+
+
+=December 22nd.=
+
+ _Be not doubtful, but followers of them also, through
+ faith and patience, inherit the promises. Heb. vi.
+ 12._
+
+God makes a promise. Faith believes it. Hope anticipates it. Patience
+quietly awaits it.--_Selected._
+
+
+=December 23rd.=
+
+ _Go and sit down in the lowest room. Luke xiv. 10._
+
+He who is willing to take the lowest place will always find sitting
+room; there is no great crush for the worst places. There is nothing
+like the jostling at the back there is at the front; so if we would be
+comfortable, we shall do well to keep behind.--_Thomas Champness._
+
+
+=December 24th.=
+
+ _Continue in prayer. Col. iv. 2._
+
+Our prayers often resemble the mischievous tricks of town children, who
+knock at their neighbor's houses and then run away; we often knock at
+heaven's door and then run off into the spirit of the world; instead of
+waiting for entrance and answer, we act as if we were afraid of having
+our prayers answered.--_Williams._
+
+
+=December 25th.=
+
+ _A multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and
+ saying, Glory to God in the highest. Luke ii. 13, 14._
+
+Angels had been present on many august occasions, and they had joined in
+many a solemn chorus to the praise of their Almighty Creator. They were
+present at the creation: "The morning stars sang together, and all the
+sons of God shouted for joy." They had seen many a planet fashioned
+between the palms of Jehovah, and wheeled by His eternal hands through
+the infinitude of space. They had sung solemn songs over many a world
+which the Great One had created. We doubt not, they had often chanted,
+"Blessing and honor, and glory, and majesty, and power, and dominion,
+and might, be unto Him that sitteth on the throne," manifesting Himself
+in the work of creation. I doubt not, too, that their songs had gathered
+force through ages. As when first created, their first breath was song,
+so when they saw God create new worlds, then their song received another
+note; they rose a little higher in the gamut of adoration. But this
+time, when they saw God stoop from His throne and become a babe hanging
+upon a woman's breast, they lifted their notes higher still; and
+reaching to the uttermost stretch of angelic music, they gained the
+highest notes of the divine scale of praise and they sang, "Glory to God
+_in the highest_," for higher in goodness they felt God could not go.
+Thus their highest praise they gave to Him in the highest act of His
+Godhead.--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=December 26th.=
+
+ _God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of
+ our Lord Jesus Christ. Gal. vi. 14._
+
+The cross is the great center of God's moral universe! To this center
+God ever pointed, and the eye of faith ever looked forward, until the
+Savior came. And now we must ever turn to that cross as the center of
+all our blessing, and the basis of all our worship, both on earth and in
+heaven--in time and throughout all eternity.
+
+
+=December 27th.=
+
+ _He ever liveth. Heb. vii. 25._
+
+It is our hope for ourselves, and for His truth, and for mankind. Men
+come and go. Leaders, teachers, thinkers, speak and work for a season,
+and then fall silent and impotent. He abides. They die, but He lives.
+They are lights kindled, and therefore, sooner or later quenched, but He
+is the true Light from which they draw all their brightness, and He
+shines for evermore.--_Alex. McLaren._
+
+
+=December 28th.=
+
+ _The friendship of the world is enmity with God. James
+ iv. 4._
+
+It is like the ivy with the oak. The ivy may give the oak a grand,
+beautiful appearance, but all the while it is feeding on its vitals. Are
+we compromising with the enemies of God? Are we being embraced by the
+world by its honors, its pleasures, its applause? This may add to us in
+the world's estimation, but our strength becomes lost.--_Denham Smith._
+
+
+=December 29th.=
+
+ _She (Hannah) . . . prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore
+ . . . she spake in her heart. 1 Sam. i. 10, 13._
+
+For real business at the mercy-seat give me a home-made prayer, a prayer
+that comes out of the depths of my heart, not because I invented it, but
+because God the Holy Ghost, put it there, and gave it such living force
+that I could not help letting it out. Though your words are broken, and
+your sentences disconnected, if your desires are earnest, if they are
+like coals of juniper, burning with a vehement flame, God will not mind
+how they find expression. If you have no words, perhaps you will pray
+better without them than with them. There are prayers that break the
+backs of words; they are too heavy for any human language to
+carry.--_Spurgeon._
+
+
+=December 30th.=
+
+ _Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Gen. vi.
+ 8._
+
+Noah found grace in the same way that Paul obtained mercy (1 Tim. 1:
+16), namely, by mercy's taking hold of him.--_Selected._
+
+
+=December 31st.=
+
+ _Which hope we have as an anchor to the soul. Heb. vi.
+ 19._
+
+Anchor to the throne of God, and then shorten the rope!--_Selected._
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+
+Page 4, there was a reference "11:10" listed under Ephesians. As
+Ephesians doesn't have eleven chapters, the transcriber checked page 78.
+Ephesians 2, written as ii, is on page 78 and is already listed under
+Ephesians. The reference to 11:10 being on page 78 was removed.
+
+Page 4, "I." added to "Thessalonians".
+
+Pge 24, "regetting" changed to "regretting" (by regretting what is)
+
+Page 63, "Jnue" changed to "June" (June 22nd)
+
+Page 64, "closee" changed to "closer" (by closer following)
+
+Page 110, "porals" changed to "portals" (portals of the grave)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thoughts for the Quiet Hour, by Various
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