f'r- ■,^" 
 
 ,t tut ®lvco%%f ^ 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 BV 4810 .N6 1896 ^ 
 
 The Northfield year-book fo 
 each new day 
 
 Shelf. 
 
FOR EACH NEW DAY 
 
{Mrs. "Bdscv Holton {Moodv 
 
 Vii-iv of the Connecticut VaJtey 
 
 ■V. L. {Moodv' s 'Birtliplace 
 
FOR EACH NEW DAY 
 
 SELECTED AND ARRANGED 
 
 BY 
 
 Delavan L. Pierson 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 BY 
 
 MARY A. LATHBURY 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 1896 
 
Coi)yriglit, 1S06, by 
 Fleming H. Revell Company. 
 
TO 
 
 MRS. BETSEY HOLTON MOODY 
 
 WHOSE SELF-DENYING LIFE OF FAITH AND LOVE 
 
 SO DEEPLY INFLUENCED THE CHARACTER AND LIFE OF HER SON 
 
 THROUGH WHOSE INSTRUMENTALITY NORTHFIELD HAS BECOME 
 
 A CENTER OF CHRISTIAN TEACHING, AND A PLACE OF 
 
 PENTECOSTAL POWER AND PRIVILEGE 
 THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY 
 
 DEDICATED 
 
[Mr. cMoociv's ^ible 
 
BY WAY OF PREFACE 
 
 The Northfield Conferences have become famous 
 for the rich spiritual privileges which they afford 
 to Christians of every creed for joining in prayer 
 and consultation with men to whom the Holy Spirit 
 has given deep insight into divine truth and marked 
 success in Christian work. These conferences stand 
 for three things— devout and scholarly study of the 
 Word of God, close fellowship with the Son of God, 
 and increased spiritual power for the service of 
 God. It is a matter for regret that all of the most 
 valuable addresses here delivered could not have 
 been gathered yearly in permanent volumes for 
 constant reference; but this has been done only oc- 
 casionally, and such records as have been prepared 
 are now for the most part out of print. Enough 
 has been printed, however, in newspapers, maga- 
 zines, and books to form a rich mine, from which 
 we have sought in the present volume to gather 
 For Each New Day some of the choicest nuggets of 
 truth for the benefit of those who do not possess the 
 printed reports or who may find them more available 
 in this condensed form. 
 
 The power of the addresses has, of course, been 
 greatly increased by the personality of the speak- 
 
 3 
 
PREFACE 
 
 ers, even as the attractiveness of Northfield is en- 
 hanced by the natural beauties of its surroundings. 
 Hence it seems most fitting that these "nuggets" 
 should be accompanied by portraits of some of the 
 men who have made the most marked impression on 
 their audiences, and by views of some of the pictur- 
 esque spots for which Northfield is noted. 
 
 We send this little book forth in the hope that it 
 will be the means of disseminating and perpetuat- 
 ing some of the glorious and heart-searching truths 
 which have been uttered at Northfield in the years 
 gone by, and many of which already have been 
 instrumental in the quickening and strengthen- 
 ing of the spiritual life of Christians at home and 
 abroad. 
 
 Delay AN L. Pierson. 
 
LIST OF SPEAKERS QUOTED 
 
 Rev. William Ashmore, D. D. 
 Bishop M. E. Baldwin, D. D. 
 Rev. S. L. Baldwin, D. D. 
 William E. Blackstone. 
 Pres. Charles A. Blanchard. 
 Rev. Andrew A. Bonar, D. D. 
 Rev. John A. Broadus, D. D. 
 Rev. James H. Brookes, D. D. 
 Rev. J. Chamberlain, M.D.,D.D. 
 Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D. D. 
 Rev. W. W. Clark. 
 Rev. John E. Clough, D. D. 
 Rev. Joseph Cook, D. D. 
 Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D. 
 Rev. John R. Davies, D. D. 
 Rev. A. C. Dixon, D. D. 
 Rev. I. D. Driver. 
 Prof. Henry Drummond. 
 Rev. W. J. Erdman, D. D. 
 Rev. W. H. P. Faunce, D. D. 
 Bishop Cyrus D. Foss, D. D. 
 Pres. Merrill E. Gates. 
 Rev. J. Monro Gibson, D. D. 
 Rev. E. P. Goodwin. 
 Rev. A. J. Gordon, D. D. 
 
 Rev. James M. Gray, D. D. 
 Rev. Wm. Henry Green, D. D. 
 Rev. David Gregg, D. D. 
 Rt. Rev. A. C. A. Hall, D. D. 
 Rev. H. L. Hastings. 
 Bishop Hendrix, D. D. 
 Rev. M. D. Hoge, D. D. 
 Rev. Geo. C. Lorimer, D. D. 
 Rev. H. C. Mabie, D. D. 
 Rev. R. S. MacArthur, D. D. 
 Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D. D. 
 Rev. John McNeill. 
 Rev. F. B. Meyer. 
 Rev. B. Fay Mills. 
 Pastor Adolph Monod. 
 D. L. Moody. 
 Prof. W. W. Moore. 
 John R. Mott. 
 Rev. L. W. Munhall. 
 Francis Murphy. 
 Rev. Andrew Murray. 
 Rev. George C. Needham. 
 Rev. John L. Nevius, D. D. 
 Rev. Chas. H. Parkhurst, D. D. 
 Pres. F. L. Patton, D. D., LL. D. 
 
LIST OF SPEAKERS QUOTED 
 
 Rev. F. N. Peloubet, D. D. 
 
 Rev. George F. Pentecost, D. D. 
 
 Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D. D. 
 
 Rev. Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 Rev. A. F. Schauffler, D. D. 
 
 Rev. C. I. Scofield. 
 
 Rev. Wilton Merle Smith, D. D. 
 
 Robert E. Speer. 
 
 Rev. James Stalker, D. D. 
 
 Rev. Josiah Strong, D. D. 
 
 Rev. J. Hudson Taylor. 
 Bishop J. M. Thoburn, D. D. 
 Rev. Robt. Ellis Thompson, D. D. 
 Rev. R. A. Torrey. 
 Prof. L. T. Townsend. 
 Rev. H. Clay Trumbull, D. D. 
 Prebendary H. W. Webb-Peploe 
 Rev. Nathaniel West, D. D. 
 Major D. W. Whittle. 
 John_G. Woolley. 
 
 ^ 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Mrs. Betsey Holton Moody, View of the Connecti- 
 cut Valley, D. L. Moody's Birthplace . . Frontispiece 
 
 Mr. Moody's Bible 
 
 The Pines 
 
 Winter Weeds 
 
 Facing Preface 
 
 January 
 
 The Home of D. L. 
 Moody 
 
 February 
 
 Andrew A. Bonar Bonar Glen 
 
 Lenten Lilies 
 
 Easter Lilies 
 
 March 
 
 Andrew Murray 
 
 April 
 A. J. Gordon 
 
 Wanamaker Falls 
 
 Gordon Lake 
 
 Apple Blossoms 
 
 Roses 
 
 May 
 
 F. B. Meyer 
 
 June 
 
 Francis L. Patton 
 
 The Seminary Build- 
 ings 
 
 Entrance to Lovers' 
 Retreat 
 
 7 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 July 
 
 Poppies Arthur T. Pierson Round Top 
 
 Awgtist 
 
 Maidenhair Fern H. W. Webb-Peploe The Auditorium 
 
 September 
 
 Chrysanthemums R. A. Torrev '^^^ ^^"^^ Hermon 
 
 •' Ferry 
 
 October 
 
 Oak Leaves John McNeill ^^® ^^^^ *o Camp 
 
 Northfield 
 
 November 
 Blue Gentians J. Hudson Taylor Cathedral Pines 
 
 December 
 
 Holly and Mistletoe Theo. L. Cuyler Seminary Grounds, 
 
 Winter Scene 
 
 ^ 
 
[Month of January 
 
 The Tines 
 The Home ofT>. L. Moody 
 
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by 
 faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the 
 glory of God.— Rom. v. 1, 2. 
 
 Peace for the past, grace for the present, and 
 glory for the future. Yes, there is glory for the 
 future; nothing before the true believer that isn't 
 glory. I think it would take the wrinkles out of 
 your brow if you would just look into the future 
 instead of into the past. 
 
 There are two kinds of people— some that live on 
 the past, and some that live on the future. You 
 never saw a person living upon the past all the time, 
 and always talking about the past, that did not have 
 a good many wrinkles on his brow. Instead of cast- 
 ing all their care on Him that careth for them, they 
 are all the time thinking about their troubles. They 
 go to a meeting, and when it is over they say, 
 "Wasn't it splendid! I enjoyed it so much; I forgot 
 all my cares and all my troubles." They laid their 
 bundle down under the seat, feut the moment the bene- 
 diction was over they picked it up again. Remember 
 that everything before the believer is glory. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 One result of communion with God is to make us 
 tender of all that respects God's honor. Moses for- 
 got himself; he had no room for thought of self; 
 hence God was able to clothe him with a halo of 
 glory. An earthly king likes to clothe his servants 
 in fine robes, and God is pleased when we enable him 
 to bless us. 
 
 Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
DAY 
 IV 
 
 Men sometimes say, " We grant that the arguments 
 in favor of Christianity make its doctrines almost a 
 certitude, but isn't it just barely possible that some 
 other theory is true? " Suppose that it is, what are 
 you going to do about it ? A man says to me, " I am 
 going to Europe, and want to know on what vessel I 
 would better go." I say, " Well, there is a vessel 
 down at the wharf which stands A No. 1 at Lloyd's, 
 has a splendid record, safe cargo, fine captain, and 
 picked crew; there is every probability that if you go 
 in that vessel you will have a safe voyage. Here is 
 another vessel, that leaks like a sieve, has a drunken 
 captain and a mutinous crew. I don't think the 
 chances of your making a safe voyage are very 
 bright if you go on that vessel, but of course you can 
 do it if you want to." " Well," he says, " I will think 
 it over." The next day he comes back and says, " Did 
 I understand you that you would make an affidavit 
 that you could prove that this Cunard steamer would 
 go over all right, and that the other vessel was bound 
 for the bottom ? " " No," I say; " I didn't say that, 
 but I said there was very great likelihood of it." 
 " Well," he says, " I have been thinking this thing 
 over a good deal, and I have made up my mind that 
 if you could not prove that this vessel is going over 
 safely, and that the other is going to the bottom, I 
 am going to take the leaky vessel." " Oh well," I 
 say, " that is just as you choose. You are taking 
 the risk. If you want to go to sea on a raft or an 
 egg-shell, go; but I have done my duty when I have 
 told you which is the best vessel to go on." 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 12 
 
DAY 
 
 V 
 
 We need to apprehend more clearly that for which 
 we have been apprehended. The blind man does not 
 need more light, but more eyes; the deaf man does 
 not need more sound, but more hearing; and the 
 Christian does not need more of the Spirit, but more 
 of the inspiration; that is, the inbreathing of the 
 Spirit. Suppose I go to a man who is sick with the 
 pneumonia, and the nurse says, " Oh, sir, he needs 
 more air." " But the windows are all wide open, my 
 dear woman; he has all the air there is. Do you not 
 see that it is not more air that he wants, but more 
 lungs ? " Now the Spirit is spiritus, the breath of 
 God, the breath of Jesus Christ; and the church is the 
 lungs of Jesus Christ, if I may say it, and you and I 
 are the cells in those lungs, and if the lungs get 
 closed up, you will have a consumptive church, a 
 feeble church, an asthmatic church, a church that is 
 full of weakness and failure, simply because it does 
 not take in more of the Spirit. It is not that you 
 need more of the Holy Ghost, but the Holy Ghost 
 needs more of you. ... I believe that the Holy 
 Ghost is in the church in living power. If you will 
 only let him he will do things of which you hardly 
 dream, in the management of the church and the 
 raising of funds, but most especially in the preach- 
 ing of the gospel. Christ prom.ised that the Spirit 
 was to show us things to come, to bring all things to 
 our remembrance, and to help our infirmities. There 
 is nothing we need that he has not promised to do for 
 us, and it is to me the most real experience. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 13 
 
DAY 
 
 VI 
 
 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.— Luke 
 xviii. 11. 
 
 This expression is here used to describe this man as 
 h^s prayer goes across from himself to himself, sup- 
 plicated and worshiped and thanked. All that God 
 gets out of this man is the action of the lips in utter- 
 ing his name. Self gets the true thanksgiving. He 
 is bound to say '' God," but he thanks and praises 
 himself. Could not you bite the tongue of somebody 
 who has been dangerously near that condition in the 
 house of God ? Using holy words, words which in 
 David's mouth were sobs, or triumphal shouts to God 
 in heaven, but on your tongue what were they? 
 Prostituted, debased to this evil use, to inflate your 
 own conceit. 
 
 It is right, my brother, that you should thank God 
 that you are not like the fellow who reeled past you 
 last night, the shame of his father's gray hairs and 
 the heartbreak of his mother. It is right, my sis- 
 ter, that you should thank God that you are not like 
 the daughters of shame whose presence defiles our 
 streets. But dost thou thank God ? " What hast thou 
 that thou didst not receive?" "Now, if thou didst 
 receive it, why dost thou therefore glory as though 
 thou hadst not received it?" Thank God, and not 
 yourself. 
 
 The Pharisee of Christ's day, as one has said, could 
 not hold a candle to the Pharisee of to-day. The 
 New Testament Pharisee said, " I thank God that I 
 am not as other men are ;" but the nineteenth-century 
 Pharisee knows that that is not orthodox; he plays 
 the publican, and says, " God, be merciful to me a 
 sinner," but remains as unhumbled and unhealed as 
 ever. John McNeill, 
 
 14 
 
DAY 
 
 vn 
 
 Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with 
 the Spirit.— Eph. v. 18. 
 
 Evidently St. Paul had in mind a contrast between 
 the sensual effects of strong drink and that divine 
 intoxication which comes from being filled with the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 What are the effects of alcoholic inebriation? An 
 expansion of vision, followed by blurring of sight; un- 
 natural exhibitions before the brain; great hilarity, 
 followed by moroseness; on the muscular system, in 
 stimulating to efforts; on the speech, in first loosing 
 the tongue and then muddling language. 
 
 How different the effects of the Holy Spirit! The 
 eyes see with truth and power; the mind is aroused 
 to grand efforts of thought, the faculty of speech to 
 most gracious and eloquent utterances; while the 
 whole person is strengthened and the disposition at- 
 tuned to the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 The first thing said of the disciples after Pente- 
 cost was that they were " filled with the Holy Ghost." 
 Whenever there was anything important to be done, 
 it says, for example, ''Paul, being filled with the 
 Spirit," spake thus; "Peter, being filled with the 
 Spirit," did this. It was characteristic of the apos- 
 tolic church that they were men full of the Holy 
 Ghost. Is that our privilege? It is not only our 
 privilege ; it is our duty. " Be filled ^^ath the Spirit " 
 is a command. In Germany a man was once so holy 
 that the neighbors called him the " God-intoxicated 
 man." We want a God-intoxicated church. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 15 
 
DAY 
 
 vm 
 
 The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth 
 the will of God abideth forever.— 1 John ii. 17. 
 
 There are other thoughts in the Scriptures that 
 catch men up on glorious wings to show them the 
 face of Him whose we are and whom we serve; but 
 there is no thought that more transforms a man's 
 life, more floods over him the transfigured glory of 
 a face touched once on the mountain-top years ago, 
 than the thought that he can tie his life up to the 
 doing of the will of God. Do you seek for an object 
 in life? "I come to do thy will, God." Do you 
 seek for food ? " My meat is to do the will of him 
 that sent me." Do you desire society? "Whoso- 
 ever shall do his will, the same is my mother, and my 
 sister, and brother." Do you seek for an education? 
 " Teach me to do thy will, God." Do you wish for 
 pleasure ? "I delight to do thy will, God." Seek- 
 est thou for reward? ''He that doeth the will of 
 God abideth forever." There will be no change for 
 him. When the wreck of matter comes, and the 
 everlasting heavens are folded up like a garment and 
 laid away for their last sleep, he will still abide. 
 Other things will pass away, but he that is doing the 
 will of God is a part now of a life that shall last for- 
 ever, of that great, sweeping, flowing life that alone 
 holds this world steady with all that is passing and 
 changing in it. And by and by, when other things 
 shall pass away, his life, instead of grasping in itself 
 the things that are laid aside, will find that it has laid 
 hold of the things that are going to abide forever, 
 the things that alone are worth the seeking, the lov- 
 ing, and the aspiring after. 
 
 Robert E. Speer. 
 
 16 
 
DAY 
 IX 
 
 Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is 
 the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.— 1 John 
 V.4. 
 
 When a battle is fought, we are all anxious to 
 know who the victors are. There is a battle in which 
 we are all interested, and we can prophesy the vic- 
 tory in advance. If we are going to get the victory 
 over the world, we have got to gain it through Christ. 
 I wouldn't think of talking to unconverted men about 
 overcoming the world, for it is utterly impossible for 
 them to do it. A good many Christian people think 
 of the battle as already fought, the victory as al- 
 ready won. They have an idea that all they have to 
 do is to put the oars down in the bottom of the boat, 
 and that the current will carry them into the ocean of 
 God's eternal love; but we have got to go against the 
 current. We have got to learn how to watch and 
 fight, and how to overcome. The battle is not ended; 
 it has only just commenced. The Christian life is a 
 conflict, a warfare against evil, and the quicker we 
 find it out the better. D. L. Moody. 
 
 Who is it obtains the victory over the world? Is 
 it he who is in the midst of favorable circumstances, 
 with nothing to draw him from the right path? No; 
 the victorious man is the man of faith— a faith in 
 God that will overcome difficulties. The more un- 
 favorable our circumstances, the greater our joy and 
 reward if we can stand up for our blessed Master 
 here until the day when we shall hear him say, 
 " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king- 
 dom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
 world." Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 17 
 
PAY 
 X 
 
 The one thing above all else that God desires of 
 men is worship, and yet there are very few in this 
 age who really do worship God. The term is used in 
 our day in a very vague and general and unscriptural 
 way. We speak of the whole service of a Lord's-day 
 morning or evening as " public worship," but there 
 is a great deal in it that is not worship. Reading the 
 Bible and meditating upon it may lead to worship, but, 
 in itself, is not worship. Listening to a sermon is not 
 worship. It is often, I fear, the worship of man; it 
 is not the worship of God. It may lead to worship. 
 Praying is not worship; it may be prefaced or con- 
 cluded with worship, but prayer is not worship. 
 Singing is not necessarily or generally worship. 
 There are hymns which, if sung intelligently and in 
 the proper spirit, would be worship, but they are 
 comparatively few, especially in the hymnology of the 
 present day, which is more taken up with man's ex- 
 perience and duty than with God and his glory. The 
 worship of God is the soul bowing down before God 
 in absorbed contemplation of himself. Over and over 
 do we read in the Scriptures, "They bowed their 
 heads and worshiped," or " They fell down and wor- 
 shiped." It has been well said that '' in prayer we 
 are occupied with our needs; in thanksgiving we are 
 occupied with our blessings; in worship we are oc- 
 cupied with himself." God would not have us less 
 occupied with our needs or present them less to him; 
 neither would he have us less occupied with our 
 thanksgiving, or return thanks less to him for them; 
 but he would have us, I am sure, more occupied with 
 himself in intelligent worship. R. A. Torrey. 
 
 18 
 
DAY 
 XI 
 
 When a man asks me why I believe in miracles, I 
 answer, "Because I have seen them." He asks, 
 "When?" I reply, "Yesterday." "Where?" "In 
 such and such a place I saw a man who had been a 
 drunkard redeemed by the power of an unseen Christ, 
 and saved from sin. That was a miracle." The best 
 argument for Christianity is a Christian. That is a 
 fact which men cannot get over. There are fifty 
 other arguments for miracles, but none so good as 
 that you have seen them. Perhaps you are one 
 yourself. Show a man a miracle with his own eyes, 
 and if he is not too hardened he will believe. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton had a great intellect, but when 
 he thought it necessary to cut two holes in his barn 
 door— a big hole for the big cat and a little hole for 
 the little cat— then he did not display any great 
 amount of genius. Establish the great miracle, and 
 the lesser miracles will take care of themselves. If 
 the resurrection of Christ took place, then all the 
 other miracles become possible, and the history of 
 the Christian church is exactly w^hat you would ex- 
 pect; if it did not take place, then Christianity, the 
 most stupendous fact in history, stands to-day con- 
 fessedly upon a falsehood, inexplicable, and mth no 
 possibility of a solution. Now whether is easier, 
 to believe that Jesus did not rise from the dead, or 
 to believe, in virtue of the congruous history follow- 
 ing the story of his resurrection, and of the specific 
 testimony to the resurrection, and the antecedent 
 presumption in favor of his resurrection, that he did 
 rise from the dead? 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 19 
 
DAY 
 
 xn 
 
 The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the 
 flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may 
 not do the things that ye [otherwise] would.— Gal. v. 17. 
 
 In the best men there is a tendency to do certain 
 things they ought not, but the more they are filled 
 with the Holy Spirit, the more it is true of them that 
 they are kept from doing what otherwise they would. 
 
 When I was a boy, I used to go to the Polytechnic 
 in London, where my favorite diversion was a diving- 
 bell, which had seats around the rim, and which at a 
 given time was filled with people and lowered into a 
 tank. We used to go down deeper, deeper into the 
 water, but not a drop ever came into that diving- 
 bell, though it had no bottom and the water was quite 
 within reach, because the bell was so full of air that, 
 though the water lusted against the air, the air lusted 
 against the water, because air was being pumped in 
 all the time from the top, and the water could not 
 do what it otherwise would do. If you are full of 
 the Holy Ghost, the flesh life is underneath you, and 
 though it would surge up, it is kept out. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 We should all condemn sin, as God condemns it, 
 the moment we see it. It is in ourselves, though 
 sometimes it is hid from us. It may be some hidden 
 sin that keeps God from using us more. Let us be 
 honest with God. Let David's prayer be ours: 
 "Search me, God"— not my neighbors, nor other 
 people, but " Search me I " 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 20 
 
DAY 
 
 xm 
 
 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a 
 vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and 
 prepared unto every good work.— 2 Tim. ii. 21. 
 
 No matter what kind of a vessel a man may be in 
 natural gifts, whether of gold, silver, or merely- 
 earthen, if he purge himself he shall be a vessel 
 unto honor. 
 
 Sometimes we see a speaker who has brilliant gifts, 
 but who is full of defilement or heresy, and we say, 
 " If that man were only converted, what a power he 
 would be ! " Another man, who is a believer, may not 
 glitter with natural endowments; yet, if he will purge 
 himself and become thoroughly sanctified, he may be 
 of far greater service : he may be so used that thou- 
 sands will bless him. God will use a vessel of wood 
 or earth, if it is made m.eet for His use, as readily as 
 one of gold or silver. No matter what the vessel is, 
 see that it is clean. George C. Needham. 
 
 Christians are apt to fall into two mistakes. One 
 class regard sanctification or consecration entirely 
 with reference to the personal life; they seek simply 
 personal holiness. They are always viewing them- 
 selves, and trying to determine whether they have 
 reached perfect sanctification, to the exclusion of 
 thought about service. Others seek consecration 
 only for service, and, in the midst of their arduous 
 and busy work, neglect their personal life. We 
 need both kinds of consecration— purifying and em- 
 powering. George F. Pentecost. 
 
 21 
 
DAY 
 XIV 
 
 Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son 
 whom he receiveth.— Heb. xii. 6. 
 
 Suppose that away in South Africa there is a 
 woman whose husband had gone on a long journey 
 into the interior. He is to be away for months, cut 
 off from all postal communications. The wife is very 
 anxious to receive news. In months she has had no 
 letter or tidings from him. One day, as she stands 
 in her door, there comes a great, savage Kafir, 
 carrying his spears and shield, and with a terrible 
 face. The woman is frightened, and she rushes into 
 the house and closes the door. He knocks at the 
 door, and she is in terror. She sends her servant, 
 who comes back and says, "The man says he must 
 see you." She goes all affrighted. He takes out an 
 old newspaper, which he has brought from her hus- 
 band, and inside the dirty newspaper she finds a letter 
 from her husband telling her of his welfare. How 
 that wife delights in that letter! she forgets the face 
 that has terrified her. Weeks pass away again, and 
 she begins to long for that ugly Kafir messenger. 
 After long waiting he comes again, and this time she 
 rushes out to meet him because he is the messenger 
 from the beloved husband, and she knows that, with 
 all his repelling exterior, he is the bearer of a 
 message of love. 
 
 Beloved, have you learned to look at tribulation 
 and vexation and disappointment as the dark, savage- 
 looking messenger, with a spear in his hand, that 
 comes straight from Jesus? Have you learned to 
 say, " There is never a trouble by which my heart is 
 touched, or even pierced, but it comes from Jesus, 
 and brings a message of love"? 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
DAY 
 XV 
 
 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to 
 man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted 
 above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a 
 way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.— 1 Cor. x. 13. 
 
 Solitude has its temptations as well as society. 
 St. Anthony of Egypt, before his conversion, was a 
 gay and fast young man of Alexandria, and when he 
 was converted he found the temptations of the city 
 so intolerable that he fled into the Egyptian desert 
 and became a hermit; but he afterward confessed 
 that the temptations of a cell in the wilderness were 
 worse than those of the city. It would not be safe 
 to exchange our temptations for those of another 
 man; every one has his o\vn. 
 
 The attraction of temptation is overcome by a 
 counter-attraction. The love of Christ in the heart 
 destroys the love of sin, and the new song of salvation 
 enables us to despise the siren song of temptation 
 and pass it by. That man alone is really safe who, 
 as he sails the seas of life, carries on board the 
 divine Orpheus, whose heavenly music is daily sound- 
 ing in his soul. 
 
 James Stalker. 
 
 The nearer you live in the power of the Holy 
 Ghost, the more keen you are to notice the approach 
 of temptation and the more prepared you are to 
 reckon yourself dead to the world of sin and lust. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 23 
 
DAY 
 XVI 
 
 Many say, '' I heard of this life of rest when I was 
 in bondage to the world, and I came back, made a 
 covenant, and took possession of what I thought was 
 the land of Jerusalem,— the city of peace,— but it 
 has never been a blessing to me. What is wrong in 
 my consecration? I gave myself to God, looked for 
 power; I pleaded for the fullness of the Spirit, asked 
 for a baptism; I thought I had something, but it never 
 came to anything." Brethren, the trouble is this: 
 you have been too much concerned for yourself in- 
 stead of being concerned with the Lord God Almighty 
 and his work. Remember those striking words, the 
 idea of which occurs so repeatedly in the epistles, 
 " Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do 
 all to the glory of God." You ate and drank that 
 you might get strong; you ate and drank that you 
 might get rich and fat in spiritual things; perhaps 
 you took work for the Lord that you might be pow- 
 erful; you entered upon the position which the Lord 
 accorded to you that you might become great in the 
 eyes of men, and it has been one long failure. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 Many Christians wonder that they fail; but look at 
 the readiness with which they talk on any subject, 
 and never think that all that may be dissipating the 
 soul's power, and leading them to spend hours not in 
 the immediate presence of God. I fear the great 
 difficulty is that we are not willing to make the 
 needed sacrifice for a life of continual waiting upon 
 God. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 24 
 
DAY 
 
 xvn 
 
 The moment that Moses came to years of discre- 
 tion we read that he " refused to be called the son 
 of Pharaoh's daughter." Take that as the starting- 
 point of the life of service. If your circumstances 
 are making it impossible for you to carry out what 
 would otherwise be the will of God, then drop your 
 circumstances as Moses did; it rests with you to 
 do it. Refuse any longer to be called the son of 
 Pharaoh's daughter. You have been in the courts 
 of men; you may have stood high in the favor of the 
 people of this world, and your heirship may look ex- 
 ceedingly brilliant. You must choose whether you 
 will take the heavenly inheritance or the earthly. 
 There comes a point in every man's history when, if 
 he wishes to be a sanctified vessel, meet for the 
 Master's use, he must decide to drop ever}i;hing that 
 prevents a holy career and a life of perfect service 
 among the people of the Lord. Would the devil be 
 what he is if he did not gild his bullets, and if he 
 did not find something to boast of to offset the glo- 
 rious attractions of heaven? Of course Pharaoh's 
 court, with all its grandeur, its learning, its talent, 
 its science, its magnificent prospects and possibilities 
 and power, attracts men, and they are dra^^^l into its 
 snare. Moses, the servant of God, calculated well, 
 and he concluded that it would be better to endure 
 the reproach of Christ than to have all the treasures 
 of Egypt. Put the two side by side, the things of 
 the world in one scale-pan, and the things of God in 
 the other, and see which kicks the beam. Make 
 your calculation, and say deliberately, " I esteem the 
 reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures 
 of the world." 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 25 
 
Lord, help me.— Matt. xv. 25. 
 
 There is a chain of but three links in this prayer 
 of the poor woman of Canaan, but it reaches a long 
 way. Some of the most beautiful prayers ever ut- 
 tered are very short prayers. This is a very short 
 prayer— any child can say it. There are three links 
 in the chain, mark you. One link is on the throne 
 of God; it is "Lord." The other link is down here; 
 it is " me." And then there is a great link between 
 that and this; it is " help." " Lord, help me." And 
 the greater your need, the more that middle link in 
 the chain will express. Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 Long prayers kill a prayer-meeting. See how 
 short are the prayers recorded in the Bible. " Lord, 
 help me," is one. "Lord, save, or I perish," is 
 another. Why, a man said that if Peter had had as 
 long a preamble as men put into prayers nowadays, 
 he would have been forty feet under water before 
 he would have got as far as the petition for rescue. 
 Prayer is asking God for something, and you can ask 
 it in a few words. If a man will pray fifteen minutes 
 in a prayer-meeting, he will pray all the spirituality 
 out of it. Fd rather have a man pray three times, 
 and only five minutes at a time, than to have him 
 take fifteen minutes all at once. D. L. Moody. 
 
 If we had prayed more we need not have worked 
 so hard. We have too little praying face to face 
 with God every day. Looking back at the end I 
 suspect there will be great grief for our sins of 
 omission— omission to get from God what we might 
 have got by praying. Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 26 
 
DAY 
 XIX 
 
 Buy the truth, and sell it not.— Prov. xxiii. 23. 
 
 The royal diamonds of England cost much, but 
 they are not for sale. The merchantman who found 
 the pearl of great price sold all he had that he might 
 buy it, but it was never on the market again; he 
 would not sell it. So with truth. The Christian, 
 especially the preacher, should be willing to pay any 
 price for it, but it should not be for sale. No in- 
 ducement should lead him to give up one jot or tittle 
 of truth, moral, religious, or experimental. It often 
 costs no little for a man to be honest and truthful; 
 to contend "for the faith once for all delivered to 
 the saints"; to get the living truth, which he can 
 learn only in the school of trial; but he should be 
 willing to pay the price for it. It is worth all it costs. 
 
 A. C. Dixon. 
 
 An eagle carrying a serpent in its talons to its nest 
 on the mountain was bitten to the heart, and fell to 
 the ground. Have you ever seen a man or woman in 
 the church fall in the same way? You do not know 
 the secret of the fall, but the omniscient eye of God 
 saw it. That neglect of prayer, that secret dishon- 
 esty in business, that stealthy indulgence in the 
 intoxicating cup, that licentiousness and profligacy 
 unseen of men, that secret tampering with unbelief 
 and error, was the serpent at the heart that brought 
 the eagle down. 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 27 
 
XX ^^J^iitil^ 
 
 They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firma- 
 ment; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars 
 for ever and ever.— Dan. xii. 3. 
 
 Ecclesiastical orders and titles count for nothing 
 in the kingdom of God. Christ's reward is not to a 
 titled clergy as such, but to " teachers " of the law 
 and the promise. It is not to fruitless preachers, 
 but to " turners of many to righteousness." There 
 is a glory in the kingdom for all, no matter how 
 varied or numerous they are. God's temple rests on 
 many pillars. God's garden has many flowers. God's 
 music has many notes. God's sky has many stars, 
 though differing one from another in glory. A glory 
 belongs to Christ, the central sun, that none of us 
 may claim as our own. Another glory belongs to 
 the church, the moon, that none of us may inherit, 
 a borrowed splendor that covers the whole company 
 of saints. But there is glory that belongs to the 
 individual " glitterers " of the firmament, different in 
 degree; and it is ours so to turn many to righteous- 
 ness as that neither Alcyone's sheen, nor the stars 
 that burn in Orion's belt, shall surpass our brightness 
 in the resurrection of the just. What a miracle of 
 splendor that will be when sun, moon, and stars all 
 shine in the firmament at the same time! We shall 
 each have our o\\ti peculiar glory while yet lost in 
 the " Greater Light" who rules that golden day; for 
 "the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the 
 kingdom of their Father." The splendor of Christ 
 will augment, not quench, our own. The clear gleam 
 of the saints will be both physical and spiritual— 
 nothing less than the glory of Christ himself. This 
 is the reward which they shall have forever for their 
 brief moment of work and suffering here on earth. 
 
 Nathaniel West. 
 28 
 
DAY 
 XXI 
 
 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only 
 true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.— John xvii. 3. 
 
 Why do not God's people know their God? For 
 this reason. They take anything rather than God, 
 —ministers and preaching and books and prayers 
 and work and effort,— any exertion of human nature 
 instead of waiting until God reveals himself. . . . 
 
 Give God his place. Begin in your prayer. The 
 power of prayer depends almost entirely upon my 
 apprehension of who it is with whom I speak. Take 
 time, and get a sight of this great God in his power, 
 in his love, in his nearness, waiting to bless you. 
 Before and above everything, take time ere you pray 
 to value the glory and presence of God. What a 
 wonderful thing our church services and conventions 
 would be if all the worshipers were waiting upon 
 God, determined to let God have his place ! I cannot 
 fully give God his place upon the throne, for I can- 
 not realize what that place is; but God will increas- 
 ingly reveal himself and the place he holds. I know 
 about the sun because I see its light. No philosopher 
 could have told me about the sun if the sun did not 
 shine. No power of meditation and thought can 
 grasp the presence of God. Be quiet and trust and 
 rest, and the everlasting God will shine into your 
 hearts, and will reveal himself. 
 
 The abiding presence of God is the heritage of 
 every child of God. The Father never hides his face 
 from his child. Sin hides it, and unbelief hides it; 
 but the Father lets his love shine all the day on the 
 face of his children. The sun is shining day and 
 night. Your sun shall never go do\vn. Come and 
 live in the presence of God. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
DAY 
 
 xxn 
 
 Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every crea- 
 ture.— Mark xvi. 15. 
 
 Christ never told his disciples to stay at home and 
 wait for sinners to come to them. 
 
 Every Christian of every age and calling is ap- 
 pointed an ambassador for Christ. 
 
 The gospel is to be preached to " every creature." 
 This means personal, hand-to-hand contact with the 
 unsaved— man to man, and woman to woman. Look 
 through the Scriptures, and you will be surprised to 
 see how much springs out of interviews with single 
 persons. The call is to you personally, and summons 
 you to personal dealing in the name of Christ with 
 every creature in the range of your influence. No 
 matter how low, no matter how foul, a man or woman 
 may be, no matter how forgotten by the world, your 
 Master is able to save to the uttermost, and you are 
 his appointed instrument to proclaim his mercy. 
 Christ does not say, "Go and address great multi- 
 tudes;" but he does say, " Go and preach the gospel 
 to every creature." In looking at some apparently 
 hopeless case, you may be tempted to think, " Oh, 
 some creatures are hardly worth saving." But how 
 do you know that from that very one a rich tribute 
 of praise may not arise to the Lord Jesus Christ? 
 In these 4ays Christ may seem to us to be working 
 in a very strange way, when he is taking up pugilists, 
 thieves, and illiterate and outcast men, and using 
 them to bear testimony to the power of his grace. 
 It is no concern of ours whether the creatures with 
 whom we deal are prepossessing or not. The com- 
 mand is to " preach the gospel to every creature." 
 
 James H. Brookes. 
 
 30 
 
DAY 
 
 xxm 
 
 Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.— 
 Rev. V. 9. 
 
 We have been redeemed to God. It is a great 
 thing to be redeemed from sin, from Satan, from this 
 present evil world, from death; but suppose that re- 
 demption stopped there ? Suppose that God had said, 
 " Now you are out of your difficulties; make the best 
 of it." Suppose that, after taking Israel out of 
 Eg3rpt, God had left them in the wilderness. No; 
 he has redeemed us to himself, to sweet and blessed 
 relations with him; to heaven; to the companionship 
 of high and holy intelligences; to the nearest place in 
 his heart; to dominion with him over all the universe. 
 There is where we lose communion. We realize what 
 we are redeemed and delivered /rom, but we often do 
 not apprehend what we are redeemed and delivered 
 to. If we did, we should not be troubled with that 
 backward look upon what we are leaving that keeps 
 us in bondage. We would seek the things that are 
 above. George F. Pentecost. 
 
 We are sinful creatures, and our holiest service 
 can only be accepted through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 When we walk in the light, as he is in the light, and 
 are having unbroken fellowship with God, and God 
 with us, it is because the blood of Jesus Christ his 
 Son is cleansing us from all sin. No holy service is 
 a ground of acceptance with God. Christ alone is 
 that ground. On the other hand, the fact that our 
 holiest things need to be accepted through Christ is 
 no reason why we should neglect to be holy. Though 
 sinful creatures, we must not be sinning creatures— 
 a very different thing indeed. 
 
 J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 31 
 
DAY 
 XXIV 
 
 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: never- 
 theless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.— Matt. xxvi. 39. 
 
 Every man who has come to the point where he 
 can swallow a bitter cup because he can feel the 
 breath of Christ on it, and who can say from his 
 heart, " Thy will, not mine, be done," has reached the 
 highest point which he can reach. 
 
 The core principle of Christianity is what? Faith? 
 No; more than that, deeper yet than that; the core 
 principle of practical Christianity is obedience— 
 obedience to Jesus Christ. The core principle in 
 the commonwealth is obedience to law; the core 
 principle in every well-regulated family is obedience 
 to parental authority. I am afraid there is not so 
 much of that old filial spirit as there used to be. 
 When a boy has learned the difference between " you 
 may" and "you must," that boy has the first start 
 in genuine manhood. Obedience is the first and the 
 great thing in this school of life in which the Master 
 has placed us. Has not the Master said, *' If ye love 
 me, keep my commandments " ? The motto for every 
 Christian should be, "Find out w^hat Jesus Christ 
 wants you to do, and then do it." 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 To the child of God, yearning for holiness, there 
 is something exceedingly precious and delightful in 
 approaching a command that seems to be naturally 
 impossible; because he realizes that the Lord gave 
 the Word, and that it is for the Lord to make possi- 
 ble of fulfilment in his child that which he commands. 
 Surely we can say with Augustine, " Give what thou 
 commandest, and then command what thou wilt." 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 32 
 
Freely ye have received, freely give,— Matt. x. 8. 
 
 Do not be afraid to call on the Lord's people to 
 give. I know they sometimes complain. " Oh," they 
 say, "it is all the time give, give, give! You are 
 always poking under our noses a collection-box or a 
 hat." Remind them that on the side of the Lord it is 
 always give, give, give to them. It might help par- 
 simonious Christians to look a little over their ac- 
 count with the Lord. It would stand somewhat thus: 
 
 Brother John Smith in account with his Master, the Lord 
 of the whole earth. 
 
 Dr. 
 To 10 showers of rain on his fields at $25 
 
 per shower, $250.00 
 
 2 extra showers at a critical period, $50 
 
 each, ■ 100.00 
 
 60 days of sunshine at $5, 300.00 
 
 
 $650.00 
 
 Cr. 
 
 
 ;r contra: 
 
 
 By given for pastor's salary, 
 
 $10.00 
 
 Home missions, 
 
 .25 
 
 Foreign Missions, 
 
 .10 
 
 $10.35 
 
 Showing a heavy balance against Brother John Smith, 
 and it would be heavy even if he had given ten times 
 as much, for the farm is the Lord's. He prepared 
 its chemical constituents so as to make it a farm at 
 all rather than a patch of desert, and he, too, planted 
 the forest from which John Smith gets the fuel for 
 his fires. William Ashmore. 
 
DAY 
 XXVI 
 
 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit 
 of God dwelleth in you?— 1 Cor. iii. 16. 
 
 The Jews' temple was an architectural triumph of 
 marvelous beauty and wondrous magnificence. We 
 are likened to it, and told that every believer is a 
 dwelling of the Holy Spirit. What the indwelling 
 power of the Spirit is may be seen in Moses' rod. 
 The rod was a common, insignificant stick,— a bit of 
 acacia,— but when it was linked with the power of 
 God it could do mighty works. 
 
 How quickly that power comes! The woman at 
 the well in Samaria went and told of Christ in the 
 power of the Spirit, and immediately there was a 
 great revival. A noted gambler in Chicago was con- 
 verted. His prayer to God was in gamblers' slang, 
 but God knew what he meant, and received him. 
 The man thought he ought to do something in his 
 Master's service. He told his story; God blessed it; 
 and in the power of the Spirit he has been telling it 
 ever since, with wonderful success. He has won more 
 souls than any man in my church. If the world 
 wants anything, it wants men and women set apart 
 to God, filled with the Spirit, and ready to be used. 
 
 E. P. Goodwin. 
 
 Are we living habitually in such nearness to the 
 Lord Jesus that the gentlest intimation of his wish 
 comes to us with the force of a command, and with 
 the consciousness that, some way or other, it is pos- 
 sible to obey, and that we shall be carried through 
 in any service to which he calls us? 
 
 J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 34 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvn 
 
 He satisfieth the longing soul.— Psalm c%ii. 9. 
 
 What would satisfy you in regard to religion if you 
 wrote out a catalogue of everything which you felt 
 you could desire, or above all that you can ask or 
 think? Would you not wTite do\vii at the very be- 
 ginning, "Peace with God, so that I should not be 
 afraid of him " ? You know in your hearts that that 
 is supplied by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the 
 cross. You have but to say, ''Amen; thank God, it 
 is true. I believe it." 
 
 Then would you not \NTite down, " Constant keep- 
 ing from all evil, and the supply of every need"? 
 The Bible is full of that blessed truth at every point: 
 the keeping Christ, the pro\iding Lord, the comfort- 
 ing Friend, the everlasting Portion of God's people. 
 WTiatever you \\ish, there stands the living God, and 
 says, I AM. God must give; he cannot \nthhold; he 
 would not be God, any more than a fountain would 
 be a fountain, if he were not perpetually pouring out 
 his fullness upon all the universe. 
 
 Suppose that you say, " I want a future that is 
 clear and full of provision for eternity." The Lord 
 is our everlasting Portion; the great God is ever say- 
 ing, I AM, and what more can men require for the 
 future ? The past and the present and the future are 
 all set before us in the living God as being completely 
 and everlastingly supplied. And yet how many souls 
 are satisfied in Christ, how many could say that they 
 have found in him everything that their souls desire ? 
 Not many, I fear. Whose fault is it? 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 35 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvm 
 
 A good many Christians are kept back from wholly 
 surrendering themselves to God from fear lest he will 
 ask them to do something hard and disagreeable. 
 They think that there will then be no knowing what 
 he may do with them, or what their friends may 
 think of them. 
 
 Suppose that a child who had been wayward and 
 wilful were to come and say to a wise and loving 
 parent, "Father, from to-day I will let mother and 
 you choose my life; you shall choose my companions, 
 my amusements, and my books." Would that father 
 say to the mother, " Now, wife, here is a chance to 
 torment our child. What dress does she detest, 
 what companions does she hate, what books does she 
 eschew? Let us select these and pile them into her 
 life." Of course he would not; he would only take 
 from the child the things that were really cursing 
 her, as a cancer might curse a healthy body, and 
 then he would crowd her life with all that would 
 make it one long summer day of bliss. Will Christ, 
 who died for me, do worse? 
 
 Friends, you may trust him. He means to do the 
 best for you, and the only thing which can curse and 
 blast your life is to get out of God's hands. When 
 George Stephenson was trying to pass his bill for 
 railways in England, a peer said to him, "Suppose 
 that a cow were to get on the line when one of your 
 newfangled engines was on the road?" "So much 
 the worse for the coo ! " said he. If you get into 
 collision with God, it is so much the worse for 
 you. "Woe to the man that strive th with his 
 Maker! " Do not let the devil cheat you out of your 
 inheritance. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 36 
 
DAY 
 XXIX 
 
 We find no difficulty in distinguishing between the 
 works of God and the works of man. God's works 
 are absolutely perfect ; man's are only relatively so. 
 The most perfect needle may be perfect for the work 
 to which it is adapted; but make it a microscopic 
 object, and the smooth hole appears ragged and the 
 needle becomes a honeycombed poker. Take, on the 
 contrary, a hair from the leg of a fly, or the dust 
 from a butterfly's wing. Magnify these, and they 
 are seen to be absolutely perfect. 
 
 Now there is no more difficulty in recognizing the 
 Word of God from the word of man than there is in 
 recognizing the work of God from the work of man. 
 You need the minute examination and the anointed 
 eye that can perceive its beauties, which do not lie 
 on the surface. In this way God's Word contains the 
 best evidence of its own inspiration. It could not 
 have been forged or manufactured. 
 
 J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 My friends, you needn't borrow any trouble about 
 the old Book; it is going to stand. Some people 
 think it is a ''back num.ber"; you and I will become 
 back numbers, but this Book is going to remain. 
 The Word of God is just lighting up the nations of 
 the earth. Some one asked a young convert how he 
 could believe that the Bible was inspired. He said, 
 " Because it inspires me." That is a short cut to in- 
 spiration. I would doubt my existence as quickly as 
 I would doubt the truth of that Book. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 37 
 
DAY 
 XXX 
 
 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead 
 dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also 
 quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.— 
 Rom. viii. 11. 
 
 Everywhere the Holy Spirit stands related to Jesus 
 Christ. Howwas Jesus begotten? The angel Gabriel 
 said to Mary, " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, 
 and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : 
 therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of 
 thee shall be called the Son of God." How did Jesus 
 receive the enduement of power? " Jesus also having 
 been baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, 
 and the Holy Ghost descended ... as a dove upon 
 him." Ask how he wTOught miracles, and I answer 
 in his o\vn words: "I by the Spirit of God cast out 
 devils." How did he complete the work of atone- 
 ment? "Who through the eternal Spirit offered 
 himself without spot to God." How did he give the 
 great commission? I reply in the language of the 
 Acts: "After that he through the Holy Ghost had 
 given commandments unto the apostles." How was 
 he raised from the dead? He was "declared to be 
 the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit 
 of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 The answer of God to the heartfelt, sincere sur- 
 render of the whole being to the possession of Jesus 
 Christ is the filling of the whole man, spirit, soul, and 
 body, with the Holy Spirit. How insignificant in 
 comparison the human side, and yet how unspeak- 
 ably important, since the fullness of the Spirit's 
 presence depends upon it! C. I. Scofield. 
 
 88 
 
DAY 
 XXXI 
 
 My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from 
 him.— Psalm Ixii. 5. 
 
 There is no joy like the joy of communion. Living 
 apart from God is misery. Look at Gethsemane; see 
 the Saviour's face; how sad with sorrow because of 
 the Father's wrath! But on the Mount of Trans- 
 figuration, when the Father said, " This is my well- 
 beloved Son," the person of Christ glistened with 
 glory. 
 
 Communion with God has the effect of making us 
 joyous. The Lord does not like to see any of his 
 disciples looking sad. . . . When men seek to entice 
 you to forego communion with God and to follow the 
 world with them, let your face shine with the bright- 
 ness that comes from your communion with the 
 Master, and they will cease to trouble you. Chris- 
 tians can sometimes do more by shining for God than 
 by speaking for him. Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 What folly it is to imagine that I cannot expect 
 God to be with me every moment! Look at the sun- 
 shine! Have you ever said, ''Oh, how^ can I keep 
 that sunlight, and be sure that I shall have it to use 
 while w^orking?" Is not God, who made the sun to 
 shine, also willing and able to let his light and his 
 presence so shine through me that I can w-alk all the 
 day with God nearer to me than an3rthing in nature ? 
 Praise God, he can do it. 
 
 Why then does he do it so seldom, and in such 
 feeble measure? There is but one answ^er: you do 
 not permit it. You are so occupied and filled with 
 other things— religious things perhaps— that you do 
 not give God time to make himself knowm, and to 
 enter and take possession. Andrew Murray. 
 
 39 
 
Church of Christ, behold at last 
 
 The promised sign appear,— 
 The gospel preached in all the world; 
 
 And lo! the King draws near. 
 
 He shall reign from sea to sea; 
 
 When he girds on his conquering sword, 
 All the ends of the earth shall see 
 
 The salvation of our God. 
 
 With girded loins, make haste! make haste! 
 
 Thy witness to complete. 
 That Christ may take his throne and bring 
 
 All nations to his feet. 
 
 And thou, Israel, long in dust, 
 
 Arise, and come away! 
 See how the Sun of Righteousness 
 
 Sheds forth the beams of day. 
 
 Thy scattered sons are gath'ring home, 
 
 The fig-tree buds again; 
 A little while and David's Son 
 
 On David's throne shall reign. 
 
 Then sing aloud, Pilgrim Church, 
 
 Brief conflict yet remains. 
 And then Immanuel descends 
 
 To bind thy foe in chains. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 40 
 
Drouth of February 
 
 IV inter M^ccds 
 ^yiiidrcic ^^ . ''Boiiar 
 
 ISoimr Glen 
 
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide 
 you into all truth.— John xvi. 13. 
 
 A man once asked me, " Is not conscience a safer 
 guide than the Holy Spirit?" I just took out my 
 watch and said, "Is not my watch better than the 
 sun?" Suppose that I said to you, "I will tell you 
 the hour by my watch, and you m^ust always take the 
 time from me." That is conscience. It is the sun 
 that is to rule the time. Conscience is fallen and 
 corrupt. If we had an unfallen conscience, like holy 
 Adam, it would be as if my watch were always to 
 agree with the sun. But now it is a most unsafe 
 guide. Sometimes we hear men say, " I don't see any 
 harm in this practice; my conscience doesn't condemn 
 it." It is not your conscience or your consciousness 
 that is the rule of right and wrong; the law is the 
 standard. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Sin 
 is the transgression of the law, not of conscience. 
 
 Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 It is a great sin that multitudes of Christian be- 
 lievers are going to human sources for the things 
 which the Spirit has promised to give to them at first- 
 hand. H. M. Parsons. 
 
 When people say, " I want more of the Holy Ghost," 
 I answer, " The Holy Ghost wants more of you." The 
 question is not, how much you can take in of the 
 Spirit, but how much the Spirit can take possession 
 of you. If you will yield yourself to the living God 
 with the conviction that he is all that every man can 
 want, not one good thing shall fail, any more than it 
 has failed in the past, of all that the Lord our God 
 has promised to give us. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 41 
 
DAY 
 
 n 
 
 Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with 
 power from on high.— Luke xxiv. 49. 
 
 The apostles had taken a four years' course in the 
 best theological seminary that ever existed, in which 
 the Lord Jesus Christ himself was the chief and sole 
 instructor; they had been eye-witnesses of our Sav- 
 iour's miracles, his death, and his resurrection, and 
 were in a few moments to witness his ascension. Yet 
 Jesus said that they were not ready to work. The 
 world was dying; the apostles were the only ones who 
 knew the saving truth; but they were not to stir a 
 step until they had received something further— the 
 baptism with the Holy Spirit. Now if those men, with 
 such an exceptional training, were not allowed to 
 enter upon their work until they had received the 
 baptism with the Holy Spirit, should we dare to 
 undertake that service until we have been so bap- 
 tized? 
 
 In Acts we read, "God anointed Jesus of Naza- 
 reth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went 
 about doing good, and healing all that were op- 
 pressed of the devil; for God was with him." That 
 refers to the time when, as Jesus stood at the Jordan, 
 the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit de- 
 scended upon him in the form of a dove. Now if 
 Jesus Christ, "the only-begotten Son of God," did 
 not enter upon his public ministry until he was bap- 
 tized with the Holy Ghost and power, it seems to me 
 very closely akin to blasphemy for a man to under- 
 take Christian service until he has received this 
 baptism. R. A. TORREY. 
 
 42 
 
DAY 
 
 m 
 
 Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. . . . Mor- 
 tify therefore your members which are upon the earth.— Col. iii. 
 3,5. 
 
 An awful responsibility lies with us of making dead 
 practically by the Holy Ghost what Christ made dead 
 judicially. You are ashamed to tell of the jealousy, the 
 lust, or the covetousness which is dragging you down. 
 Brethren, give it to the grave. Does not Jesus say 
 that you would better pluck out your eye or cut off 
 your right hand rather than that your whole body 
 should be cast into hell ? Put your passions to death. 
 They will rise up if they can; they have terrible tap- 
 roots, and you will never pull them all up ; but your 
 determination must be to destroy them. You may 
 have to do it openly. I have known men who have 
 had to lose all their character to win their souls. It 
 is a solemn process. There are downright damnable 
 things in most men who call themselves Christians, 
 and they are cherishing them. Bring them out and 
 put them to death. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 There is no way of being delivered from this life 
 of self but one : we must follow Christ, set our heart 
 upon him, listen to his teachings, give ourselves up 
 every day that Christ may be all to us, and by the 
 power of Christ the denial of self will be a blessed, 
 unceasing reality. Never for one hour do I expect 
 the Christian to reach a stage at which he can say, 
 " I have no self to deny." His fellowship with the 
 cross of Christ will be an unceasing denial of self 
 every hour and every moment. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 43 
 
DAY 
 IV 
 
 Religion is communion between man and God— the 
 finite 'T' and the infinite "I AM." Christianity is 
 religion plus the incarnation. ... If you eliminate 
 the supernatural from Christianity, you will at once 
 get a new religion, a new Christianity, that has no 
 reference to the next life, no salvation; simply a moral 
 philosophy, a theory of life, and the present life at 
 that; a Christianity that is simply a philanthropy; 
 and the immortality of the individual having been 
 given up, the next thing will be to give attention to 
 the immortality of the organism. Hence it is that 
 some men at the present time are saying very little 
 about the salvation of the soul, but a great deal about 
 the salvation of the life and the regeneration of so- 
 ciety. Hence it is that a great deal of practical 
 Christian endeavor, that used to be addressed to the 
 question of making men sorry for sin and leading 
 them to seek pardon from God, is expending itself in 
 providing soup-kitchens and more comfortable en- 
 vironment for the poor. 
 
 Now, when we are told, as we have been, that the 
 church does not understand Christianity, that the 
 Young Men's Christian Association does not under- 
 stand Christianity, that Christianity does not under- 
 stand Christianity, the meaning is that those who 
 make this allegation have a fundamentally false view 
 as to the philosophy of life, as to the place that 
 Christianity is designed to serve in our world's his- 
 tory. We must understand the underlying philosophy 
 of these men if we would appreciate their anti- 
 evangelical attitude. 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 44 
 
DAY 
 V 
 
 As in the case of the temple of Israel, so with the 
 believer, the temple of the Holy Spirit, our whole 
 natures should be consecrated to God. ''Present 
 your bodies— the court— a living sacrifice; " " Let the 
 peace of God rule in your hearts"— the holy place; 
 "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing 
 that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, 
 and bringing into captivity every thought to the 
 obedience of Christ"— the mind, the holy of holies. 
 
 Perhaps our conception of consecration has been 
 poor and inadequate. We have been thinking of 
 service simply, and that in connection with the body; 
 we have said, ''Take my hands; take my lips; take 
 my feet," and so on in a kind of sentimental, anatom- 
 ical way. We have not thought of being God-filled, 
 God-possessed, quite apart from considerations of 
 service. I grow weary of the perpetual spurring on of 
 God's people to service,— as if any father ever cared 
 so much to have his children toiling for him as loving 
 and trusting him,— and the m.ore so as the God-pos- 
 sessed Christian invariably does serve. There is a 
 higher thought: the enthronement of Jesus as Lord 
 of all, and once for all; there should be no call for 
 reconsecration in the Christian's experience. 
 
 C. L SCOFIELD. 
 
 In full consecration to God it is a joy to recognize 
 all our members, all our faculties— every fiber of our 
 body and faculty of mind and appetite and pro- 
 pensity—all as his, for his service and glory; and as 
 his children to do all to the glory of God. 
 
 J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 45 
 
DAI 
 VI 
 
 Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.— Heb. ix. 28. 
 
 There is this mistaken view of the atonement: that 
 God would not forgive his creatures but for a vica- 
 rious atonement; that for this sin-offering he took 
 Christ, his Son, and that his pain and intense suffering 
 brought the pardon. 
 
 That is not it. There was sin in the world. Death 
 was the penalty. Who would pay the wages of sin? 
 Christ was the volunteer. He trod the wine-press 
 alone because there was none holy enough to stand 
 with him. God is not hampered by his own attri- 
 butes. Justice never forgives; it exacts punishment. 
 The defaulter cannot wipe out his crime by the mul- 
 tiplication table. If there is a world where five times 
 five make fifty, then there may be a world where the 
 wages of sin is life. If a friend gives a defaulter 
 fifty thousand dollars, he may pay the money back 
 and gain forgiveness. Christ paid the debt con- 
 tracted in the currency of earth in the higher cur- 
 rency of heaven. 
 
 A Russian officer could not make his accounts come 
 right; there was a heavy balance against him. In 
 the rigid despotism of the empire he feared the con- 
 sequences and the severe penalty if he could not 
 make it good. Poring over the figures at his table 
 one day, in his worry and despair he began scribbling. 
 He wTote on the paper before him, '^ Who will make 
 up this deficit?" He fell asleep. The czar passed; 
 he saw the officer, and, curious, read the scrap of 
 writing; he seized the pen and wrote underneath, "I, 
 even I, Alexander." 
 
 Who can pay the deficit of human sin? "I, even 
 I," said Christ on the cross, A. J. Gordon. 
 
 46 
 
DAY 
 
 vn 
 
 Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.— Gal. vi. 7. 
 
 In the natural world a man expects to reap if he- 
 sows; he expects to reap the same kind of seed; he 
 expects to reap more than he sows; and ignorance 
 of the kind of seed sown makes no difference in the 
 reaping. The man who sows his "wild oats" will 
 find that the same is true in his experience. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 Never trifle with one sin. It is like a little cloud 
 which, as a poet has said, may hold a hurricane in 
 its grasp. The next sin you commit may have a 
 mighty effect in the blighting of your life. You do 
 not know the streams that may flow from that foun- 
 tain; for sin is a fountain— not a mere act, but a 
 fountain of evil. Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 Have you ever thought of the power of sin to per- 
 petuate and multiply itself? In Genesis thistles are 
 mentioned as a part of the earth's curse. One seed 
 is the first crop, twenty-four hundred the second, five 
 hundred and seventy-six million the third. So it is 
 with sin: " By one man's disobedience many were 
 made sinners." This stands as a law of nature, 
 natural and spiritual—" yielding fruit after his kind." 
 Man was created holy ; had he remained so there would 
 have been " fruit after his kind." But he sinned, and 
 Adam begat a son in his own likeness— not in God's 
 likeness. Then see the power of sin in producing 
 defiance of God. Cain is an example; he is the first- 
 fruit of the flesh— the first child born into the world. 
 It is not necessary to go through five hundred and 
 seventy-six million thistle-seeds in their growth and 
 development to know their nature ; they are all alike. 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 47 
 
DAY 
 
 vin 
 
 Look at God. Who is God ? He is the great Being 
 for whom alone the universe exists, in whom alone it 
 can have happiness. It came from him; it can find 
 no rest or joy outside of him. Oh, if only Christians 
 understood and believed that God is nothing but a 
 fountain of happiness and perfect, everlasting bless- 
 edness, the result would be that every Christian would 
 say, " The more I can have of God, his will and his 
 love and his fellowship, the happier." If they be- 
 lieved that with their whole heart, how they would 
 with the utmost ease give up everything that might 
 separate them from God! . . . 
 
 Look at man's nature. For what was man created? 
 Simply to live in the likeness of God, and as his image. 
 Now, if we have been created in the image and like- 
 ness of God, we can find our happiness in nothing but 
 in what God finds his happiness. The more like to 
 him we are, the happier we shall be. In what does 
 God find his happiness? In two things: everlasting 
 righteousness and everlasting beneficence. "God 
 is light, and in him is no darkness at all." The 
 kingdom, the rule of God, will bring us nothing but 
 righteousness. Seek the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness. If men but knew what sin is, and if 
 they really longed to be free from everything like 
 sin, what a grand message this would be! Jesus 
 comes to lead men to God and his righteousness. We 
 were created to be like God, in his perfect righteous- 
 ness and holiness and love. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 It is far less important to die the martyr's death 
 than to live the martyr's life. R. E. Speer. 
 
 48 
 
DAY 
 DC 
 
 When man ends then God begins. When all the 
 world had become guilty before God; when Hebrew 
 righteousness had utterly failed to fear God and keep 
 his commandments; when the Greek by his wisdom 
 knew not God; when the Roman had stupefied his con- 
 science and liked not to retain God in his knowledge, 
 even though there was still taught by Hebrew and 
 by pagan creed, by seer and sibyl, the comJng of a 
 day of wrath and the impending judgment of Gehenna; 
 then God, in his love, wisdom, and power, made him- 
 self manifest, a just God and a Saviour. 
 
 W. J. Erdman. 
 
 Christ came into this world not simply as a moral 
 reformer, or as a moral philosopher, though he was 
 both, but as a Saviour. Christianity is salvation, and 
 the Bible gives us the plan of salvation. There is 
 either no peril at all, in which case we do not need 
 any religion, and need not trouble ourselves; or there 
 may be peril, and no salvation at all, in which case 
 we may trouble ourselves, but it will do us no good; 
 or else " there is none other name under heaven given 
 among men, whereby we must be saved; " and " other 
 foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which 
 is Jesus Christ." 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 If we are going to get salvation, we have got to 
 get it upon God's terms and not upon our own; and 
 that is why I fear that a good many people will not 
 get it— simply because they can't have their own 
 way about it. D. L. Moody. 
 
 49 
 
DAY 
 X 
 
 How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ? — 
 Rom. vi. 2. 
 
 We have been redeemed, like the people of Israel, 
 from bondage, and then have been led through the 
 Red Sea of Christ's bJood, and should know that our 
 enemies are practically drowned there. Every man 
 who desires to have contact with the flesh is putting 
 his arm across the Red Sea, and is shaking hands 
 with the survivors of the Egyptians, which are the 
 flesh, across the grave of Christ. Did you ever think 
 that when you made a concession to the flesh you 
 had to reach over the buried Son of God to get back 
 to your old lusts and appetites? No wonder that 
 Satan's hand is stronger than yours, and that he 
 pulls you over. Were you redeemed to go on living 
 in the wilderness forty years, supplied, like beggars, 
 every day with bread and water? God never lets his 
 children starve to death; he manages to give them 
 bread and water; but, after all, that is a tasteless 
 supply to most Christians. I hear Christians say, 
 " I suppose we must go through a howling wilderness 
 all the days of our life." It is a pilgrimage, my 
 brother. There is something far better than the old 
 bondage of Egypt, or than merely lingering on in a 
 howling wilderness, supplied with bread and water. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 He who begins by halving his heart between God 
 and mammon will end by being whole-hearted for the 
 world and faint-hearted for Christ. We are so con- 
 stituted that it is impossible for us to exercise a 
 divided allegiance; we must be out-and-out for God, 
 or we shall be in-and-in for the world and all its in- 
 terests. A. J. Gordon. 
 50 
 
DAY 
 XI 
 
 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the 
 Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.— Acts 
 V. 32. 
 
 Obedience means surrender, absolute surrender. 
 I come to God and say essentially, '' Heavenly Father, 
 thou hast bought me mth a price ; I acknowledge thine 
 absolute ownership. Take me, send me where thou 
 wilt, use me as thou wilt." Here we touch the hin- 
 drance in many lives. Many desire the baptism with 
 the Holy Spirit who are not conscious of any definite 
 sin, but there is not total surrender. One minister 
 wishes the baptism that he, in the power of the Holy 
 Spirit, may preach in Boston; another that he may 
 preach in New York; another in Chicago. Ah, God 
 may want you in Africa or in India or in the islands 
 of the sea; and before you can have the Holy Spirit's 
 power anywhere you must be willing to go an5rwhere. 
 
 R. A. TORREY. 
 
 Obedience means marching right on whether we 
 feel like it or not. D. L. Moody. 
 
 We hear much these days about God's sovereignty 
 and man's free agency. Christ said to the woman 
 of Canaan, " Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." Here 
 is something that looks like human sovereignty and 
 divine agency. Free to do what we please because 
 we please to do God's will. Such is the free agency 
 of faith that takes hold of the arm that moves the 
 world. Such free agency Moses had when the Red 
 Sea was no obstacle in the way of his progress. The 
 walls of Jericho fell before this free agency of faith. 
 By means of it any little David is more than a match 
 for the strongest Goliath. Armed with it, Gideon 
 and his three hundred were invincible. 
 
 A. C. Dixon. 
 
 51 
 
DAY 
 
 xn 
 
 Have you a capacity for the law? Christ himself 
 is an Advocate. Come, practise in the supreme court; 
 expound the law of God. He will open your eyes and 
 show you wondrous things out of his law. Go forth 
 and teach men to obey this law. 
 
 If you are fond of working among conveyances and 
 title-deeds, go and help multitudes of people to get, 
 or to clear up, their title-deeds to mansions in the 
 skies. You will not get your fees in this world, but 
 you will in the next. 
 
 Have you a talent for medical work? Christ was 
 the great Physician. Come, heal the wounds that 
 sin has made; open blind eyes; unstop deaf ears; make 
 the lame to leap ; raise the dead. God himself will 
 furnish you the medicines: the balm of Gilead, the 
 Water of Life, the anointing salve for the eyes, the 
 leaves of the Tree of Life, which are for the healing 
 of the nations. You will receive your fees for pour- 
 ing in oil and wine, and for bringing to the great inn 
 above many a poor sinner who has fallen among 
 thieves as he wandered away from Jerusalem to 
 Jericho. 
 
 Have you been thinking of a business life ? Here 
 is a "merchandise better than the merchandise of 
 silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold." Men go 
 far from home to Brazil or South Africa, and toil in 
 the mud and mire of the mines to dig up diamond 
 stones, which they sell to kings and princes for 
 merely an earthly reward. Would you not, then, go 
 far away and assist to gather these gems which, when 
 washed in the blood of Christ and cut and polished 
 by the Holy Spirit, shall adorn the crown of him 
 who is King of kings, and flash back the glory of 
 the living God? William Ashmore. 
 
 52 
 
DAY 
 
 xm 
 
 Elijah said to Elisha, " Is there anything you want? 
 Don't be afraid to ask. You seem to be very timid." 
 Elisha replied, " Yes, there is something I want." 
 "Well, don't be afraid to ask; you shall have what- 
 ever you want." A blank check! How did he fill 
 it out ? Did he ask for as much of the Spirit as Elijah 
 had? That would have been a great thing. Talk 
 about kings! Elijah had power over kings. Kings 
 are in the habit of ordering their subjects around. 
 Here was a subject who was in the habit of ordering 
 kings around. Talk about the power of Caesar, 
 Napoleon, Alexander, the great generals and warriors 
 of this earth! Why, it is nothing to the power of 
 the man who is in communion with God. Elisha was 
 not going to ask for a small thing. He says, "I 
 want a double portion of thy spirit." I can see Elijah 
 turn round to him in surprise and say, "You have 
 asked me a hard thing." But he says, " If you see 
 me when I am taken from you, you shall have it." 
 "Then," says Elisha, "you'll not get away without 
 my seeing you." He wanted a double portion of 
 Elijah's spirit, and he was determined to get it. So 
 he took good care to see him in the chariot, and he 
 did see him. Elisha performed twice the number of 
 miracles that Elijah did. 
 
 Jesus Christ has come dowTi from heaven since 
 then, and is it so wonderful to ask for the power of 
 the Spirit? W^e ought to have a hundred times more 
 power than Elijah and Elisha had. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 When God takes possession of a slow tongue, he 
 can make it fast if he wants to, but you will get none 
 of the credit. H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 53 
 
DAY 
 XIV 
 
 You will never possess any more of Christ than 
 you claim as your own. You do not gain God's bless- 
 ing by storing away books full of notes; you must 
 take God's truth into your very soul and feast upon 
 it. What good will abundance of food or water or 
 money do you if it is unclaimed and unused? The 
 money that a man takes from the bank is his enjoy- 
 able possession, that which he has in the bank is only 
 his lawful possession. You cannot pass through the 
 riches of God except by the study of this blessed 
 Book and by constantly dealing with God in prayer. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 The difference between Christians is not so much 
 a difference of endowment as it is a difference of 
 apprehension and appropriation. A man once owned 
 a small farm. He did his best to till it and rear a 
 family, but after working hard all his life he died a 
 poor man. The farm was inherited by his eldest son. 
 The son discovered a gold-mine and became im- 
 mensely rich. The property he had was the same 
 that his father had; but the father didn't know what 
 was in the land, while the son found it out. 
 
 That is the difference between Christians. Through 
 the atonement of Jesus Christ God hath made us heirs 
 to all things, but only the Holy Ghost reveals our 
 riches. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 " Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that 
 we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time 
 of need." How many of God's people who have the 
 bank of heaven to draw on, and could come boldly to 
 the throne of grace and get help in time of need, 
 have thus far been living on a few crumbs. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 64 
 
DAY 
 XV 
 
 I distinguish very clearly between a doctrine as 
 essential to salvation, and the belief of that doctrine 
 as essential to salvation. If Christianity is worth 
 anything at all, there could have been no hope for 
 you and me except upon the ground of the doctrine 
 of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ; for it is 
 the fact of the incarnation, together with what is 
 involved in it, that makes salvation possible. But it 
 is one thing to say that salvation is conditioned upon 
 a doctrine, and another thing to say that my salva- 
 tion is conditioned upon my belief in that doctrine. 
 I do not raise an inquiry here as to the minimum of 
 belief, though I hold some belief to be necessary; 
 but the question is, whether there is anything of a 
 dogmatic nature, in the content of the Christian re- 
 ligion, which is obligatory upon all who profess and 
 call themselves Christian. 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 A great many men are waiting for feeling; but 
 feeling never saves, and the most unsatisfactory 
 Christians are those w^ho are governed altogether by 
 their sentiments. D. L. Moody. 
 
 There are three things: feeling, faith, and fact. 
 You may have put them in this order: feeling, fact, 
 faith; or fact, feeling, faith. You must change, and 
 put them thus: fact, faith— and feeling a hundred 
 years after, if you like. You have been trying to 
 feel God's fact, but you must take God's fact on faith 
 —the great fact that Christ has come through the 
 grave into a new world. Upon your apprehension by 
 faith of that fact as revealed in the Bible the whole 
 structure of your deliverance depends. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 65 
 
DAY 
 XVI 
 
 And I, if I be lifted up, . . . will draw all men unto me.— 
 John xii. 32. 
 
 If you put yourself before the cross, you may hold 
 up the cross and yet obscure it. But the man that 
 will get behind the cross,— who is willing to get be- 
 hind Christ and the Bible, so that men will not see 
 him, but only the exalted Word,— that is the man 
 whom the Holy Ghost is likely to endue with great 
 power. Like the Statue of Liberty in New York 
 harbor, we are to be light-holders; and if we stand 
 on a high pedestal it is that we may hold the light a 
 little higher. May God truly endue us with power 
 by his Spirit and for his service! 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 One day a friend of mine, in passing down a Glas- 
 gow street, saw a crowd at a shop door, and had the 
 curiosity to look in. There he saw an auctioneer 
 holding up a grand picture so that all could see it. 
 When he got it in position, he remained behind it and 
 said to the crowd, "Now look at this part of the 
 picture, . . . and now at this other part," and so on, 
 describing each detail of it. " Now," said my friend, 
 " the whole time I was there I never saw the speaker, 
 but only the picture he was showing." That is the 
 way to work for Christ. He miust increase, but we 
 must be out of sight. Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 Christ spake his parables unto the people. To 
 speak unto people is a thing that some commentators 
 and preachers never by any means try. They speak 
 over or under them, or past them, or all round about 
 them, but unto them they never tried yet. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 56 
 
DAY 
 
 xvn 
 
 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, 
 but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. — 1 Cor, iii. 1. 
 
 The apostle here speaks of two stages of the 
 Christian life, two types of Christians: the spiritual 
 and the carnal. Those to whom he wrote were all 
 Christians,— in Christ,— but, instead of being spirit- 
 ual Christians, they were carnal. 
 
 In the wisdom which the Holy Ghost gives him St. 
 Paul feels, '' I cannot write to these Corinthian Chris- 
 tians unless I know their state, and unless I tell them 
 of it. If I give spiritual food to carnal Christians I 
 am doing them more harm than good, for they are 
 not fit to take it in. I cannot feed them with meat; 
 I must feed them with milk." 
 
 In the church of Christ you will find two classes 
 of Christians. Some have lived many years as be- 
 lievers, and yet always remain babes; others are 
 spiritual men, because they have given themselves 
 up to the power, the leading, and to the entire rule 
 of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 If we are to receive a blessing, the first thing 
 needed is for each one to know on which side of the 
 line he stands. Andrew Murray. 
 
 "Every one that useth milk is unskilful in the 
 word of righteousness: for he is a babe." It is to be 
 feared that many Christians are content with the 
 forgiveness of sins, and do not care to take another 
 step. " I write unto you, little children," says John, 
 " because your sins are forgiven you." Are we going 
 to be content to remain little children, without going 
 on to do the young men's battle with the wicked one ? 
 " I write unto you, young men, because ye have over- 
 come the wicked one." Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 57 
 
DAY 
 
 xvm 
 
 The trouble with us is, our proud hearts refuse to 
 accept the position in which God's Word places us. 
 It charges us with sin and corruption, and we would 
 like to excuse ourselves and harp a little upon the 
 dignity of human nature. God tells us that without 
 him we can do nothing. We are apt to think that 
 by our reasoning powers and high culture we can 
 ourselves do wonders. Not until we accept the 
 position of sinfulness and weakness are we prepared 
 to receive his blessing. A. C. Dixon. 
 
 Some Christians make a great deal of themselves 
 and little of Christ, while others make a little of them- 
 selves and a great deal of Christ. When a person 
 considers that he is growing little in the sight of the 
 Lord, in reality he is finding the true grace and 
 goodness of the God of mankind. D. L. Moody. 
 
 Allow God to take his place in your heart and life. 
 Luther often said to people, when they came to him 
 about difficulties, " Do let God be God." Let God be 
 all in all, every day in your life, from morning to 
 evening. No more say, " I and God; " let it be " God 
 and L" God first, and I second; God to lead, and I 
 to follow; God to work all in me, and I to work out 
 only what God works; God to rule, and I to obey. 
 Even in that order there is a danger, for the flesh is 
 so subtle, and one might begin to think, "It is God 
 and I. Oh, what a privilege that I have such a 
 partner!" There might be secret self-exaltation in 
 associating God with myself. There is a more pre- 
 cious word still—" God and not I; not God first, and 
 I second; God is all, and I am nothing." Paul said, 
 " I labored more abundantly than they all, though I 
 be nothing." Andrew Murray. 
 
 58 
 
DAY 
 XDC 
 
 There is no truly Christian man who keeps an 
 unconverted pocket-book. God's universal law of un- 
 selfish service is as supreme in the domain of material 
 possessions— in the realm of that wealth which ex- 
 tends a man's power "to bring things to pass"— as 
 it is in any other department of man's possible efforts. 
 The unvarying law of God, which attaches an obliga- 
 tion to every opportunity and places a duty over 
 against every right, makes no exception of wealth 
 with its vast powers of service. God has so ordered 
 the social life of our race that no man can make the 
 most of his powers of mind and heart and will until 
 he employs those powers in the service of his fellow- 
 men. This is an accepted law in the realm of mind 
 and spirit. It is no less binding upon the power 
 which material wealth places at a man's disposal. 
 No man has the slightest right to say of his wealth, 
 "It is mine; I may use it selfishly if I will." No 
 man has arrived at a true conception of the respon- 
 sibility that attaches to the possession of property, 
 until his relations through it to his fellow-men fill a 
 larger place in his views of life than does his ability 
 by his wealth to serve his own selfish ends. No man 
 is free to make an option as to whether he or his 
 property shall come under God's law of service. He 
 and his property are of necessity under that law, as 
 he is of necessity a member of society and of the 
 state, without his leave having been asked. In the 
 use of his property, as of all his other powers, he 
 owes steady allegiance to that law of service; and 
 though in managing his property he may disregard 
 this obligation, he can never escape it. 
 
 Merrill E. Gates. 
 
 59 
 
DAY 
 XX 
 
 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.— Eph. iii, 17. 
 
 One of our poets, speaking of our birth, beautifully 
 says, "Every soul leaves port under sealed orders. 
 We cannot know whither we are going or what we 
 are to do till the time comes for breaking the seal." 
 But I can tell you something more beautiful than this. 
 Every regenerated soul sets out on its voyage with 
 an invisible Captain on board, who knows the nature 
 of our sealed orders from the outset, and who will 
 shape our entire voyage accordingly if we will only 
 let him. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 If your heart is empty, if you have only sent the 
 devil out by a pledge or a resolution, he will surely 
 come back and say, "Is there any one inside?" If 
 there is silence he will smash open the door through 
 all your good resolutions, and he will bring seven 
 other devils along with him, and will fill your heart 
 with riot and sin. But if, when he comes back, 
 Christ says, "I am here," that is enough. Do you 
 mean to tell me that Christ can keep that sun full 
 of light, and cannot keep your heart full of light? 
 I believe, if Christ wished it, that he could make 
 Niagara leap back, and I believe that he can come 
 into your life and can take your passion and stay it. 
 Do not be afraid; Christ can keep. Put him in pos- 
 session, and he will keep his own.. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 Take the position of power and privilege which God 
 offers to you; no longer dare to vilify Christ in the 
 eyes of the world by saying "I cannot." No one 
 ever said that you could. Say once for all, " I can- 
 not, but Christ can." H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 60 
 
DAY 
 XXI 
 
 God be merciful to me a sinner.— Luke xviii. 13. 
 
 Sometimes in the darkness a man's foot kicks 
 against the ladder that slopes through the darkness 
 up to God. He takes the first round of it. It is not 
 the top of the ladder— justification; but it is a big 
 jump upward from where he has been lying in the 
 dirt at the bottom of the pit of iniquity. He is clean 
 out, altogether out, and up one rung on the ladder, 
 and will take the rest. For whom He calls, them He 
 also justifies; that is the first round, and the publican 
 took it in that prayer. And whom He justifies, them 
 He also sanctifies ; that is a rising up the ladder. And 
 v/hom He sanctifies, them He also glorifies. 
 
 The publican is in heaven. May we meet him 
 there, through the rich grace of Him who, a few 
 months afterward, died on the cross that the publi- 
 can's prayer might be heard and answered exceed- 
 ingly abundantly above all that he could ask or think. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 A soldier once said that, according to his idea, 
 repentance was, ''Halt! About face! Forward! 
 March!" Repentance is not lopping off particular 
 sins. If I have a vessel full of holes, and stop only 
 part of them, the vessel will sink just as surely as if 
 I did not stop any. We must break off from all sin 
 and turn unto God. D. L. Moody. 
 
 To repent means to change your mind about sin, 
 and especially about Christ. Peter says, " Repent; " 
 change from the Christ-rejecting to the Christ-ac- 
 cepting attitude of mind; accept Christ as Saviour 
 and as Lord. R. A. ToRREY. 
 
 61 
 
DAY 
 
 xxn 
 
 I would rather aim at perfection and fall short of 
 it than aim at imperfection and fully attain it. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 " Daniel purposed in his heart." That's the trou- 
 ble with a great many people; they purpose to do 
 right, but they only purpose in their heads, and that 
 doesn't amount to much. If you are .going to be 
 Christians, you must purpose to serve God away down 
 in your hearts. " With the heart man believeth unto 
 righteousness." D. L. Moody. 
 
 The purpose of our life should be twofold: first, 
 to understand what is our position in Christ, and then 
 by faith and by the power of the Holy Ghost to be 
 lifted to that level. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 Many men have high aspirations, but not the right 
 motive. A man desires the baptism with the Holy Spirit 
 simply that he may be a greater preacher or a greater 
 personal worker, or that he may become renowned as 
 a Christian. One of the subtlest errors that Satan 
 leads us into is that where we are longing and crying 
 for this most solemn of all gifts that we may be 
 greater preachers or that our church may be built 
 up. The desire must not be for any glory that 
 comes to me or my church, but because God and 
 Christ are being dishonored by my life and lack of 
 power, and by the sin of the people around me, and 
 because he will be honored if I am baptized with the 
 Spirit. R. A. Torrey. 
 
 62 
 
DAY 
 
 xxni 
 
 Philosophical doubt, although it has done harm, 
 has also done good; good results have come with the 
 spirit of investigation that has been developed. It 
 was no great credit to Thomas that he did not believe 
 the resurrection of Christ as the others did, and yet 
 what a wonderful chapter in the evidences of Chris- 
 tianity was opened by his skepticism! It was no 
 great credit to men that they called in question the 
 authenticity of the four gospels, but how their skep- 
 ticism has stimulated scholarly inquiry and strength- 
 ened the defenses of the gospel narratives! 
 
 When the elevated railroad was first started in 
 New York the people were a little timid about riding 
 on it; so the proprietors of the road took great 
 pleasure in apprising the public of the fact that this 
 road had been subjected to a most abnormal and 
 enormous tonnage, and that consequently people of 
 ordinary weight might deem themselves quite safe 
 in traveling over that road. I feel the same way 
 about the four gospels— that I can take my way to 
 heaven above the din and dust of daily life because 
 this elevated road has had all Germany upon it, and 
 that as yet it has given no sign of instability. 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 If you stand on the mountain of faith and look 
 down, things will seem easy to you; but if you are in 
 the valley of doubt they will look like giants. What 
 the church wants and what it is looking for are men 
 and women of faith. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 63 
 
DAY 
 XXIV 
 
 There are men who tell us that a revelation from 
 God is impossible. I simply ask them, How do you 
 know? Because if God exists it is not impossible; 
 all things are possible with him. 
 
 Others say that a revelation is not needed. If I 
 should ask a dozen men for the time of day, and each 
 watch should mark a different time, it would be 
 difficult to tell which one was right; they might be 
 all wrong, but it would be clear that only one of 
 them could by any possibility be right. A man might 
 claim the gift of infallibility for his o^vn watch, which 
 would not be modest; or we might say, "There is no 
 telling what o'clock it is," which would be uncom- 
 fortable; or we might say, "It would be convenient 
 if there were a big town clock by which we could all 
 regulate our watches." What we want in this uni- 
 versal conflict about moral questions is a town clock 
 to tell us the time of day. 
 
 Others say that there is so much in the Bible that 
 could not have come from God; that this or that, for 
 instance, is not God's style. I don't know just what 
 God's style is, but it seems to me that what is fair 
 for one is fair for the other; and when I ask that my 
 verifying faculty be allowed the privilege of eliminat- 
 ing from the Bible what I do not like, I am fair enough 
 to say that my next-door neighbor may have the same 
 privilege. It may turn out that his eclecticism has 
 not hit upon the same thing to take out or keep in 
 as mine has. Now when we have all taken out what 
 we do not think could have come from God, I should 
 like to know how much of the Bible would be left 
 except that for which the bookbinder is responsible. 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 64 
 
DAY 
 XXV 
 
 An hour alone with God isn't lost time. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 Persevering pray erf ulness— day by day wTestling 
 and pleading— is harder for the flesh than preaching. 
 
 Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 Real prayer is need packed till it takes fire. 
 
 A. C. Dixon. 
 
 " Thy will be done " is the key-note to which every 
 prayer must be tuned. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 "Praying in the Holy Ghost" (Jude 20). Not 
 simply the Holy Ghost praying in you. You are im- 
 mersed in the Holy Ghost. The atmosphere you 
 breathe is what you give out. It is wTong to imagine 
 that prayer is only speaking to God. Often the most 
 precious part of it is God speaking to us. On Jacob's 
 ladder angels descended as well as ascended. The 
 closet is the place of revelation. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 Prayer is the most necessary and wonderful thing 
 in the spiritual life; yet we know neither how to pray 
 nor for what to pray as we ought, so the Spirit prays 
 for us with groanings unutterable. We often do not 
 know what the Spirit is doing within us; but God, 
 who searches the hearts, finds out, and answers the 
 prayer of the Spirit because it is according to his will. 
 What a solemn, blessed, comforting thought! 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 65 
 
DAY 
 XXVI 
 
 Receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to 
 save your souls.— James i. 21. 
 
 God has given only two perfect things to this lost 
 world: one of them is the incarnate Word, which is 
 the Lord Jesus Christ; the other is the written Word, 
 which is the Holy Scripture. There is a divine ele- 
 ment and a human element in both. 
 
 James H. Brookes. 
 
 Believe God's Word as it stands; you need not in- 
 terpret God's words until you have altogether changed 
 their meaning, as some expositors do. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 The best way to be equipped for the work is to be 
 deeply taught in the Word. If we want the work 
 "well in hand," we must have the Word "well in 
 hand." But it is one thing to have the Bible in the 
 hand, and quite another thing to know how to handle 
 it. The Word of God is called by Paul " the sword 
 of the Spirit." Any one can hold a sword, but only 
 an expert can use it skilfully. . . . 
 
 A man might come from hell, his eyes bursting 
 with terror, his flesh scorched with the fires of per- 
 dition, fly through your congregation as you preach, 
 and cry, " Flee from the wrath which is to come." 
 He might be followed by another, clad in white, from 
 the heavenly city to tell of the joys about God's 
 throne. And if the Spirit of God is not there it will 
 pass without effect from your people. 
 
 W. W. Clark. 
 
 66 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvn 
 
 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him 
 in spirit and in truth.— John iv. 24. 
 
 The only living that is acceptable to God is living 
 in the Spirit. The only walk that is acceptable to 
 God is walking in the Spirit. The only service that 
 is acceptable to God is serving in the Spirit. The 
 only praying that is acceptable to God is praying in 
 the Spirit. The only worship that is acceptable to 
 God is worshiping in the Spirit. Would we worship 
 aright, our hearts must look up and cry, ''Teach me, 
 Holy Spirit, to worship," and he will do it. 
 
 R. A. TORREY. 
 
 The service of the Israelites was very similar to 
 that of surrounding nations; but whereas the latter 
 kindled the fires upon their altars, God distinguished 
 his service by sending down fire from heaven. That 
 is the difference between true religion and its coun- 
 terfeit. Natural religion depends on the energy of 
 the flesh. Supernatural religion depends on the en- 
 ergy of the Spirit of God, which comes down from 
 above. It is quite possible to be perfectly right in 
 the forms of our service, and yet destitute of divine 
 power. George F. Pentecost. 
 
 It is a blessed privilege to fall before our Saviour 
 and worship, though all his dealings with us are as 
 dark as night. A. C. Dixon. 
 
 Those who are in communion with God live, those 
 who are not are dead. Henry Drummond. 
 
 67 
 
DAY 
 
 XX vm 
 
 Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
 creature.— Mark xvi. 15. 
 
 There is the great commission, " Go ye." Where 
 men are ordered to enroll themselves as soldiers, it 
 is their business to do so thereupon. If they are 
 exempt, the onus probandi as to exemption rests upon 
 them and not upon the executive. It is for us to 
 do; as when Deborah and Barak called for troops, 
 "the people willingly offered themselves. Let us 
 recognize our obligation and offer ourselves. 
 
 WlILLAM ASHMORE. 
 
 There is no question that if we had a human im- 
 perial authority we could go around the globe in a 
 year, and promulgate this gospel decree all through 
 the world. And yet we stand still when the King of 
 kings is saying to us, " Go ye into all the world, and 
 preach the gospel to every creature." 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 If we could only put ourselves into harmony with 
 God, how easily the great work of carrying the gos- 
 pel into all the world would be fulfilled, and the time 
 brought near when our Redeemer shall come as a 
 King to reign and to judge the poor with equity! 
 There is something wrong when one man can sit in 
 a palace while another is perishing with hunger at 
 his door. W. E. Blackstone. 
 
 Work enough at home? There will be more 
 work at home if we don't take hold of missions 
 more in earnest. . . . Christianity is nothing if it is 
 not missionary. Your Christianity is nothing if it 
 is not missionary. John A. Broadus. 
 
 68 
 
[Mouth of iMarch 
 
 Lenteu Lilies 
 Andrew Murray IVaiiamaker Falls 
 

The sins of teachers are the teachers of sins. Be- 
 ware of the bad things of good men. 
 
 Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 No amount of praying or psalm-singing will cover 
 up a sin. A lady once said to me, " I am more irri- 
 table than I was five years ago. Can you help me? " 
 I answered, "The next time you are angry with a 
 person, go and confess it, and ask forgiveness." " Oh," 
 she said, " I shouldn't like to do that." Of course 
 not. I shouldn't like to take cod-liver oil, but I should 
 do it to save my life. When people do with their 
 souls as they would with their bodies, there will be 
 something accomplished. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 Many of us would love to have sin taken away. 
 Who loves to have a hasty temper? Who loves to 
 have a proud disposition? Who loves to have a 
 worldly heart? No one. You ask Christ to take it 
 away, and he doesn't do it. Why does he not do it? 
 It is because you wanted him to take away the ugly 
 fruits while the poisonous root remained in you. You 
 did not ask him that the flesh should be nailed to his 
 cross, and that you should henceforth give up self 
 entirely to the power of his spirit. 
 
 Do you suppose that a painter would want to work 
 out a beautiful picture on a canvas which did not 
 belong to him? No. Yet people want Jesus Christ 
 to bestow his trouble upon them in taking away this 
 temper or that other sin while as yet they have not 
 yielded themselves utterly to his command and his 
 keeping. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 69 
 
DAY -^^^^..^vy^^-^-r^'S^. 
 
 n 
 
 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. 
 —1 John ii. 15. 
 
 We are living under a materializing influence that 
 is disastrous to a more serious and devotional view 
 of life. In the minds of a great many good people 
 the ideal of human existence is a great deal of ma- 
 terial comfort and a large surplus of pleasure that 
 can be purchased in the form of desirable surround- 
 ings. These ideals rise in the scale of magnitude and 
 grandeur every year, and men say, "When I can 
 realize this ideal of earthly paradise, I am going to 
 devote a great deal of time to devotional preparation 
 for the next world." The trouble is that they no 
 sooner get their house on the sea-shore than they 
 want a house in the mountains, and when they have 
 that they want a house somewhere else. They say, 
 " Wait till my cat-boat grows into a sloop, and my 
 sloop into a schooner, and my schooner into a steam- 
 yacht; then I devise liberal things." But the " then " 
 never comes. Meanwhile they have become so im- 
 mersed in this world, and so filled with the spirit of 
 this world, and so absorbed in the pursuit of this 
 w^orld's pleasure and comfort, that they have no time 
 to read this Bible as they ought to read it. 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 Love not this world, because if you love it you 
 cannot love Him. Love not this world, because if 
 you love it you love something that by and by will 
 be ashes, and, while you thought you were grasping 
 the honors of the world that now is and is to come, 
 you will find you have grasped only the hot, dusty 
 ashes of the world that is to come. 
 
 Robert E. Speer. 
 70 
 
DAY 
 
 m 
 
 Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself 
 with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he 
 drank.— Dan. i. 8. 
 
 Modern travelers commonly do not get half-way 
 to Babylon before they conclude that it is more 
 prudent to follow the example of the multitude, on 
 the drinking question, than to stand out by them- 
 selves, as did Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed- 
 nego; so they drink the wines of the European tables, 
 as "everybody else does." When they have come 
 to that conclusion they are in a good state to con- 
 sider further whether it is wise to be cast into a den 
 of lions or a fiery furnace of invidious comment rather 
 than conform to the universal custom of the country 
 they are in, as to times and modes of worship, as to 
 local amusements, and as to a courteous recognition 
 of the images which King Fashion has set up to be 
 admired and extolled. 
 
 Henry Clay Trumbull. 
 
 Will the Christian find that he gets peace and joy 
 so long as he tries to satisfy his soul by saying that 
 his worldly taste is "only a little one"? I do not 
 say that it is ^vrong to smoke or for a Christian to 
 go to the theater. That is for each one to settle 
 with his God. But when Christians draw quibbling 
 distinctions between great and small sins, between 
 one theater and another, one dance and another, it 
 is clear that the conscience is not at rest, and there 
 can be no rest till God's voice is fully and heartily 
 obeyed. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 71 
 
DAY 
 IV 
 
 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
 thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord.— Isa. li. 7. 
 
 If you ever expect to enter the kingdom of God, 
 you must give up your thoughts and accept God's 
 thoughts, give up your ways and accept God's ways; 
 for his thoughts and ways are as high above ours 
 as is the heaven above the earth. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 Get the love of Jesus into your heart, and the lust 
 for woman and man, the lust for gold, and the lust 
 for drink will be crowded out. Money! It was for 
 money that Zaccheus was damning his soul; but 
 Jesus so took possession of his heart that he virtu- 
 ally said, " Lord, as to money, I will fling it away by 
 the shovelful, now that I know thee; I will restore 
 fourfold." You say that you are converted. Show 
 me your hands; show me your purse. Do not pre- 
 tend that you know Jesus if you have a purse as 
 tight as a miser's fist. You say that you are con- 
 verted. Are you delivered from that which before 
 was dragging you down to the pit? Folks go about 
 scorning conversion. Nobody in Jericho scorned 
 and scoffed at the conversion of Zaccheus. It had 
 all the signs of a genuine turning of the man inside 
 out and outside in. He was radically changed, and 
 it was the love of Christ that did it. Zaccheus came 
 out of curiosity to see this man Jesus. He saw him, 
 and he got such a close look at him that his heart 
 rose up and said, "This is the Lord." That was 
 faith, saving faith. It works by love and purifies 
 the heart and overcomes the world. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 72 
 
DAY 
 V 
 
 The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by 
 Jesus Christ.— John i. 17. 
 
 The law slays the sinner, grace slays the sin. 
 
 Ada R. Habershon. 
 
 Our first union was with the law; and the law 
 said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
 strength, and with all thy mind. Thou shalt love 
 thy neighbor as thyself." We never brought forth 
 one single particle of fruit to God during such con- 
 nection. Knowing that " cursed is every one that 
 continueth not in all things that are written in the 
 book of the law to do them," we have never continued 
 for one mortal hour in all things or in any of the 
 things written in the book of the law to do them. We 
 could bring forth no fruit to God in our connection 
 with the law. That is why he sent the law— that 
 we might learn this truth. Some people think they 
 can be justified by the law that condemns them to 
 eternal torment. It is impossible; we must look for 
 justification to some one who was able to satisfy the 
 demands of the law and of justice. 
 
 Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 The law produces legal conviction and leads to 
 despair; the gospel produces evangelical conviction 
 and leads to hope. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 73 
 
DAY 
 VI 
 
 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. 
 
 Some one has said, " Unconfessed sin in the soul 
 is like a bullet in the body." If you haven't power, 
 it may be there is some sin that needs to be con- 
 fessed, something in your life that needs to be 
 straightened out. No amount of psalm-singing, no 
 amount of attending religious gatherings, no amount 
 of praying, no amount of reading your Bible, is going 
 to cover up anything of that kind. If I have too 
 much pride to confess my sins, I needn't expect 
 mercy from God or answers to my prayers. 
 
 " He that covereth his sins shall not prosper." He 
 may be a man in the pulpit, a priest behind the altar, 
 or a king on the throne— I don't care who he is; he 
 will fail. Man has been trying it for six thousand 
 years. Adam tried it and failed ; Moses tried it when 
 he buried the Egyptian, but he failed; David tried 
 it; priests and kings and princes and the best men 
 that ever trod the earth have tried it, but all have 
 failed. " Be sure your sin will find you out." You 
 cannot bury your sins so deep that there will not be 
 a resurrection by and by, if they have not been 
 blotted out by the Son of God. What man has 
 failed to do for six thousand years you and I would 
 best give up trying to do. 
 
 The reason that some people's prayers go no higher 
 than their head is because they have some uncon- 
 fessed sin in their lives. You may pray and weep 
 and pray and weep, but it will do no good. First 
 confess to the one you have ^\Tonged, then go to 
 God and see how quickly he will hear you. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 74 
 
DAY 
 
 vn 
 
 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable 
 for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
 righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly 
 furnished unto all good works.— 2 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
 The Bible contains a complete rule for the whole 
 life of man. It tells a man how he should conduct 
 himself with reference to God, to the Lord Jesus, to 
 the Holy Spirit, to the Word which God has given, 
 and to the church which he has established. It 
 directs him how he should treat his ^^ife and care 
 for his children; how much he should pay his hired 
 man, and when he should pay him. It teaches the 
 hired man how he should conduct himself with ref- 
 erence to his employer. It tells men how to loan 
 money and how to collect debts as well as how to 
 worship. It teaches a man what kind of a citizen 
 he should be, how he ought to vote if he is in a self- 
 governing country. If he is a magistrate it directs 
 him how he ought to exercise authority, and says 
 that God ^ill call him to account for the manner in 
 which he executes his office. 
 
 We are apt to narrow do\^Ti the teachings of the 
 Bible and the business of the church, and to suppose 
 that they have to do chiefly \^ith the work of the 
 Sabbath, and that they have little or nothing to do 
 with our pleasures, our business, or our political and 
 our industrial relations; but the testimony of the 
 Word of God is that this Book is given by inspiration 
 of God, and that it is "profitable for doctrine, for 
 reproof, for correction, for instruction in right doing: 
 that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- 
 nished unto every good work," not simply to some 
 good works. 
 
 Charles A. Blanchard. 
 
 75 
 
DAY 
 
 vm 
 
 There are graces within our reach that we will 
 never seek until we are hard pressed by temptation 
 in the opposite direction. It is a profound mistake 
 merely to resist the tempter; a better policy is to 
 turn from the temptation to acquire the opposite 
 grace. If you are tempted to impurity, claim purity; 
 if you are tempted to impatience, claim patience; if 
 tempted to weakness, claim strength. 
 
 We must watch not only our weak points, but our 
 strong points, for many of the great Bible heroes 
 failed on their strong points; Moses in his meekness 
 and Job in his patience. There is nothing in which 
 men are naturally strong that can stand against the 
 power of our great adversary. Yielding is the result 
 of long previous decline; the sin which breaks out 
 in the manifestation has far-reaching roots, and to 
 be confessed properly one needs to go back from the 
 act to the intention, and from the intention to the 
 purpose, through the weeks or months of previous 
 life, until one gets at last to the beginning of the 
 sin ; then confess it in order that it may be expiated 
 before God. 
 
 There is this blessed thought— that there is re- 
 ciprocity between Christ and ourselves; and in this 
 the tempted man finds succor, first, that he is in 
 Christ, and, second, that Christ is in him. If you 
 are in Christ you are in the one under whose feet 
 the devil is. Abide there and you too are above the 
 devil, and therefore— now mark— the whole energy 
 of the devil is directed to solicit, to seduce men out 
 of Christ. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 76 
 
DAY 
 IX 
 
 Some people ask how a man is to know that he is 
 saved. How do you know anything? Suppose that 
 I am dealing with an inquirer who has accepted 
 Christ, but has not the assurance which a believer 
 should have. Do I ask him to kneel down and pray 
 and pray until some happy feeling comes into his 
 heart ? If I do, I do not know how to lead a soul to 
 Christ. No; I take God's Word and put it into his 
 hand, and say, " My friend, ^v\\\ you read the thirty- 
 sixth verse of the third chapter of John : ' He that 
 believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life.' " 
 I say to him, " Who has everlasting life ? " "He that 
 believes on the Son of God." "Do you believe on 
 the Son of God ? " "I do." " Have you everlasting 
 life?" "No; I do not feel it!" "Will you please 
 read that again ? " And he reads, " He that believeth 
 on the Son of God hath everlasting life." I say, " Who 
 has everlasting life ? " He looks at the Book and says, 
 " He that believeth on the Son." I say, " Do you be- 
 lieve on the Son?" "I do." "What have you?" 
 " Why, I do not know that I have anything." " WTiat 
 does that verse say that the one that believes on the 
 Son of God hath? How many of those who believe 
 on the Son have everlasting life? " " All of them." 
 "How do you know it?" "It says so." "Do you 
 believe on the Son ? " "I do." " WTiat have you ? " 
 " Everlasting life! " " How do you know it ? " " Be- 
 cause God says so." It is only after he rests on what 
 God says in his Word that he has the testimony of 
 the Holy Ghost. Faith in the Word of God comes 
 first. R. A. ToRREY. 
 
 77 
 
DAY ^^^^^^^--^-r^-^^. 
 
 X 
 
 With what weapons do the missionaries propose 
 to do this mighty work of conquering the heathen 
 world for Christ ? With nothing but " a little book." 
 That is like Moses going down with a sheep-crook to 
 conquer Pharaoh and all his host. Any weapon is 
 enough if the Lord is only behind it. The little Book 
 is enough if the Lord only helps you to use it. A 
 Christian warrior should always carry his fighting 
 Testament in his pistol pocket. If you cannot carry 
 around with you a double-barreled Testament, always 
 carry a single-barreled one. 
 
 William Ashmore. 
 
 When a man is giving a lecture with a map or 
 illustrations, he often uses a long pointer to indicate 
 the places or illustrations. Does the audience look 
 at that pointer? No. It might be of fine gold, but 
 the pointer cannot satisfy them. They want to see 
 what the pointer points at. The Bible is nothing 
 but a pointer pointing to God ; and Jesus Christ came 
 to point us, to show us the way, to bring us to God. 
 
 I fear that there are many people who love Christ 
 and trust in him, but who fail to see the one great 
 object of his work; they have never understood 
 the Scripture, " He died that he might bring us to 
 God." There is a difference between the way I am 
 going and the end I have in view. I might be travel- 
 ing amid beautiful scenery, in delightful company, 
 but if I have a home which I long to reach all the 
 scenery and company around me cannot satisfy me. 
 God is meant to be the home of our souls. 
 
 Andrew Murray, 
 
 78 
 
DAY 
 XI 
 
 Men tell us so*metimes there is no such thing as 
 an atheist. There must be. There are some men 
 to whom it is true that there is no God. They can- 
 not see God because they have no eye. They have 
 only an abortive organ, atrophied by neglect. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 A good many people live on negations. They are 
 always telling what they don't believe. I want a 
 man to tell me what he does believe, not what he 
 does not believe. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 Young gentlemen, believe your beliefs and doubt 
 your doubts; do not make the mistake of doubting 
 your beliefs and believing your doubts. 
 
 Charles F. Deems. 
 
 Nothing cuts out the roots of the Christian life 
 so much as unbelief. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 Hinder not the will of God by a spirit of unbelief, 
 by limiting the Holy One of Israel, because you 
 thereby reject his holy counsel and purpose for you. 
 Train your souls in a spirit of receptivity and by the 
 exercise of faith to take all that God himself can 
 give. Be determined that *' your whole spirit, soul, 
 and body "—whatever department of your being you 
 can deal with— shall be placed submissively at the 
 disposal of God, to know, to receive, and to enjoy 
 everything that God can possibly give you. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 79 
 
DAY 
 
 xn 
 
 Christianity stands out as a kind of "spiritual 
 highland " and headland for the human race, a sys- 
 tem which, the more it is studied and experienced, 
 is the more highly prized; its path is always the path 
 of peace, knowledge, elevation, emancipation, salva- 
 tion; a system various in manner, flexible in its cir- 
 cumstantials, while most inflexible in its essence; 
 full of strength for the weak, of consolation for the 
 sorrowful, of hope for the discouraged, of stimulus 
 for the sluggish, of defense for the defenseless, of 
 authority for the many, of terror for the evil, of 
 reward for the good, of pardon for the penitent; a 
 system which can satisfy all the desires that human 
 want awakens, which can enter all dark places and 
 leave them full of light by conquering despair and 
 instituting its wonderful miracles of renovation; a 
 system which can convert dens of thieves into bethels 
 of the Holy Ghost, and which can cast out its legion 
 of devils, and say to wretches whose brains have 
 been in a perpetual " craze " and whose hearts have 
 been filled with all sorts of villainies, " Peace, be 
 still ; " a system which can stand by the bedside of 
 the dying, quell every misgiving, wipe away the 
 death-sweat, and leave the brow calm and serene as 
 heaven; a system which can perfect the individual, 
 bless the family, correct and purify society, and 
 civilize the world; which can, in fine, do everything 
 it promises to do, and promises to do everything es- 
 sential to human happiness here and hereafter- 
 such a system has the unencumbered guaranty of 
 all times. 
 
 L. T. TOWNSEND. 
 
 80 
 
DAY 
 
 xin 
 
 God has given us two sets of scales in our mental 
 and moral constitution. One of these scales is in- 
 tended to weigh evidence and subject it to rational 
 proofs; the other is to weigh right and wrong and 
 to ascertain the difference between morality and 
 immorality. Reason's office is to weigh evidence; 
 conscience's office is to weigh right and wrong. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 If a man is morally color-blind he is likely to be 
 wrong— conscientiously. That faculty or element 
 in our nature which we call "conscience" is set 
 within us as a monitor, not as a teacher, in the school 
 of morals. Conscience tells us that we ought to do 
 right, but conscience does not tell us what right is. 
 The compass is safe to steer by as long as its needle 
 points where it ought to point; but the compass- 
 needle may be forcibly deflected from the pole, or it 
 may be drawn aside by the influences of its surround- 
 ings, and then, of course, it is untrustworthy. 
 
 It would be well if all of us understood just how far 
 from the true meridian our moral compass-needles 
 were deflected by the attractions of gold or pleasure 
 or appetite or ambition or love or hatred or by the 
 social atmosphere of our immediate neighborhood. 
 Henry Clay Trumbull. 
 
 Conscience is not a safe guide, because very often 
 conscience won't tell you you have done wrong until 
 after you have done it, but the Bible will tell you 
 what is wrong before you have done it. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 81 
 
DAY 
 XIV 
 
 Faith is totally distinct from trust. By faith we 
 claim; by trust we prove that we have taken, and 
 that the gifts of God have become to us what God 
 in his omnipotence intended them to be. 
 
 Faith takes into our soul what God in his mercy 
 reveals, and believes God against all comers. Trust 
 hands over to God what God has given us, and says, 
 " Keep, Lord, and use, for I cannot." Then comes 
 a holy confidence and assurance which prevents us 
 from being disturbed under any circumstances what- 
 ever, and out of which comes a boldness which en- 
 ables us to act for the glory of God. Faith when it 
 has conceived brings forth trust, and trust when it 
 is finished brings forth confidence and boldness. 
 
 Alexander the Great had a physician who was his 
 bosom friend. One day there came an anonymous 
 letter on a waxed tablet to the king. " king, 
 there is treachery in thy home. Thy physician pur- 
 poses to kill thee by the draft which he gives thee 
 to-morrow under the plea of healing thee." The 
 king put that waxed tablet into his breast, and the 
 next day, when the physician came to give him the 
 draft, he put out his left hand and took the cup, and 
 with his right hand handed the tablet to the physi- 
 cian and said, " Friend, I trust thee," and drank the 
 potion without stopping a moment to see the effect 
 upon the physician. It is not enough to believe that 
 Christ is the great Physician; you must trust him. 
 We trust the cook every day. What fools we are 
 that we cannot trust God! 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 82 
 
DAY 
 XV 
 
 My little boy, since taken to heaven, once asked 
 me, " Papa, how is it that one person, Christ, could 
 atone for the sin of millions of men?" We were in 
 a garden at the time. I replied, " Suppose that there 
 was on the ground there a handful of worms; don't 
 you think that you would be more valuable than those 
 worms?" " Yes," he said. " Suppose that that wheel- 
 barrow was full of worms; would you not be more 
 valuable than all of them ? " " Yes." " Suppose all the 
 millions of worms in the earth were gathered to- 
 gether; would you not still be more valuable than 
 they, no matter how many?" "Yes; I am sure I 
 would." " Then is there not a far greater difference 
 in the scale of being between Christ and man than 
 between man and the worm? We are creatures; 
 God is the Creator. Had many other worlds sinned 
 as well as ours, the blood of Christ would be more 
 than sufficient to atone for them all." 
 
 R. C. Morgan. 
 
 Let us consider for a moment our standing with 
 Christ. Again we must distinguish. The death of 
 Christ has two aspects: one toward the guilt of sin, 
 the other toward the power of sin. The aspect to- 
 ward the guilt of sin is that by his one oblation and 
 sacrifice he has put the guilt away forever, and the 
 thunder-clouds that lower over his cross spend them- 
 selves on Calvary, and his cross is a lightning-con- 
 ductor to draw away what men might fear. But 
 Christ not only died /or sin, but he died unto sin. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 83 
 
DAY 
 XVI 
 
 It has taxed many minds to explain what Jesus 
 could have meant when on the cross he cried, " My 
 God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 
 
 It seems to me that we may see its meaning more 
 clearly in the light of an incident which happened 
 in the eastern part of Massachusetts some years ago. 
 A judge was obliged to try his own son, who had 
 been charged with some crime. There was great 
 anxiety to know how that judge would conduct the 
 case. To the astonishment of everybody, the judge 
 was just as impartial and unmoved as if the young 
 man had had no relation to him. When he had heard 
 the evidence he charged the jury with just the same 
 exactness and carefulness as if he had not known 
 the accused. People were astonished. They said 
 he had no heart. But when the jury uttered the 
 words " Not guilty " the judge jumped up, reached 
 out his hands, and cried, " Come up here, my boy." 
 He took his son right into his seat on the bench. 
 
 Notice that in Gethsemane Jesus says, ^'Father, 
 if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." He also 
 prayed, "Father, forgive them." But when he 
 reached the culmination of his agony, when he stood 
 before the judge bearing the sins of the world on 
 his shoulders,— a great culprit,— he could say "Fa- 
 ther " no more. For once it was, " My God, my God ! " 
 But when it was all over and he rose from the grave, 
 once more he is filled with the full radiance of the 
 Father's love, and the Father places him at his own 
 right hand. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 84 
 
DAY 
 
 xvn 
 
 If the amount of energy lost in trying to grow 
 were spent in fulfilling rather the conditions of 
 growth, we should have many more cubits to show 
 for our stature. . . . 
 
 The stature of the Lord Jesus was not itself 
 reached by work, and he who thinks to approach its 
 mystical height by anxious effort is really receding 
 from it. . . . 
 
 If God is adding to our spiritual stature, unfold- 
 ing the new nature within us, it is a mistake to keep 
 twitching at the petals with our coarse fingers. We 
 must seek to let the Creative Hand alone. "It is 
 God which giveth the increase." . . . 
 
 The life must develop out according to its type, 
 and, being a germ of the Christ-life, it must unfold 
 into the image of Christ. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 It is one thing to be innocent; it is another thing 
 to be virtuous. It is one thing to be like Adam, 
 created after the image of God in perfect purity and 
 simplicity; it is another thing to be like the perfected 
 Christ, who was tried and tempted in all points like 
 as we are, yet without sin. Remember that, while 
 the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, 
 conformity to the image of Christ wrought in us by 
 the Holy Spirit means that we, being changed from 
 glory to glory, may become like the Son of God, and 
 at last be actually one with him, seeing him as he is, 
 and being exact facsimiles of his perfect image. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
DAY 
 
 xvm 
 
 All things are possible to him that believeth.— Mark ix. 23. 
 
 Faith is simply claiming from God what God be- 
 stows, and thankfully accepting the benefits thereof. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 Don't let experience judge your faith; let your 
 faith judge your experience. 
 
 Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 Always put your " if " in the right place. In the 
 case of the man who wanted Christ to cast the dumb 
 spirit out of his son, the father said, " If thou canst 
 do anything;" but the Lord answered him, "If thou 
 canst believe." Christ straightened out the "if" 
 and put it in the right place. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 The ten spies differed from Caleb and Joshua in 
 their report of the land of Canaan. There are three 
 words here beginning with G— the word " God," the 
 word " giant," and the word " grasshopper." Now, 
 note, these spies made a great mistake as to the 
 position of these three words; they compared them- 
 selves with the people of the land and said, " And 
 in their sight we were as grasshoppers." If they 
 had compared the people of the land with God, they 
 would have come back, as Caleb and Joshua did, who 
 said in effect, " We have compared the giants with 
 God, and the giants are as grasshoppers." 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 86 
 
DAY 
 XIX 
 
 No man can serve two masters : for either he will hate the one, 
 and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise 
 the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.— Matt. vi. 24. 
 
 We become inevitably and insensibly assimilated 
 to that which most completely absorbs our time and 
 attention. One cannot be constantly mixed in secu- 
 lar society without not only losing something of his 
 interest in the divine society of God and angels, where 
 he belongs by his new birth, but also becoming him- 
 self secularized. "Our citizenship is in heaven," 
 says the Scripture. It is a sublime conception that 
 even while here in the flesh we hold residence among 
 seraphs and saints' of the New Jerusalem. It is for 
 us, therefore, scrupulously to keep to our heavenly 
 fellowship, to pay taxes where we live, and to refuse 
 to be assessed by any rival system to Christ's true 
 church— simply because a divided loyalty is impos- 
 sible. . . . 
 
 A man cannot be two without ceasing to be one ; 
 a Christian cannot subdivide himself among many 
 interests without subtracting himself from some one 
 interest. . . . 
 
 The true disciple is bound to adopt the double 
 motto, " I believe and I belong." 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 When a man lives up to what he preaches, then 
 his testimony has weight. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 87 
 
DAY 
 XX 
 
 Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son 
 whom he receiveth.— Heb. xii. 6. 
 
 It sometimes seems hard to find out any reason 
 for God's dealings with his children. We may not 
 be able to find out why we are afflicted, and may 
 think that perhaps it is because of some undiscovered 
 sin; but I do not think that God often deals with us 
 in that way. He generally likes to let his people 
 know their faults when he chastises them. You re- 
 member how when Absalom could not get Joab to 
 come and talk with him, he burned up his corn-fields 
 and then Joab came. Now the Lord often sends 
 sore afflictions upon his children in order that they 
 may come and talk with him more. You remember 
 that Christ took away Lazarus in order that the sisters 
 might send for Him, and that the people through all 
 ages might get a wondrous discovery of Him as the 
 resurrection and the life. And you remember, too, 
 how John the Baptist was taken away from his dis- 
 ciples in order that they might rather go to Christ. 
 
 Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 When the devil tries our faith it is that he may 
 crush it or diminish it; but when God tries our faith 
 it is to establish and increase it. 
 
 Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 The man who has fallen most and wandered most 
 and caused God most trouble is the man who may 
 get some good out of his sins by learning to deal 
 with other men as God has dealt with him, and to 
 teach them the infinite love and mercy of God. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
DAY 
 XXI 
 
 Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every liv- 
 ing thing.— Ps. cxlv. 16. 
 
 Look away from self to God. The God who took 
 Israel through the Red Sea was the God who took 
 them through Jordan into Canaan. The God who 
 converted you is the God who is able to give you 
 every day this blessed life. God does not disinherit 
 any of his children. What he gives is for every one. 
 God is waiting to bestow it. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 There is no favoritism with God; just as the spring 
 flowers, the sunshine, and the pure air are for all, as 
 free to the beggar as to the sovereign, so God's 
 abundant grace is for every man and woman, and 
 there is nothing that any one has ever had which 
 you may not have if you will. The same stream is 
 passing your door, though you may not utilize the 
 power to drive your water-wheel; the same electricity 
 is in the air, though you have not learned to make it 
 flash your messages or do the work of your home. 
 The same grace that made a Luther, a Knox, a Lati- 
 mer, a Frances Ridley Havergal, or a Spurgeon is 
 for you to-day, and if you are living a low-down life, 
 beaten and thwarted and dashed down and constantly 
 compelled to admit shortcomings and failure, under- 
 stand it is not because there is any favoritism on 
 God's part; because all the Holy Ghost's power, and 
 everything which is stored in Jesus Christ, is waiting 
 to make you a saint and to lift you to the level which 
 you pine for in your best moments. It makes a 
 great difference when a man understands this. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 89 
 
DAY 
 
 xxn 
 
 The spiritual man having passed from death unto 
 life, the natural man must next proceed to pass 
 from life unto death. Having opened the new set 
 of correspondences, he must deliberately close up 
 the old. Regeneration, in short, must be accom- 
 panied by degeneration. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 Christ had no sinful self, but he had a self, and 
 that self he actually gave up unto death. In Geth- 
 semane he said, "Father, not my will." That un- 
 sinning self he gave up unto death that he might 
 rise out of the grave from God, raised up and glori- 
 fied. Do you expect to go to heaven any other way 
 than Christ went? Beware! Remember that Christ 
 descended into death and the grave, and it is in the 
 death of self, following Jesus to the uttermost, that 
 the deliverance and the life will come. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 Dead with Christ, and buried with him in baptism! 
 Our baptism is the burial service of the old man. 
 Then what business have we ever unearthing a stink- 
 ing corpse? H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 There is a law of dynamics to the effect that for 
 every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. 
 There is a law in Christianity that the ascent is 
 equivalent to the descent; that the lower we get the 
 higher we rise; that the deeper we drink in the cup 
 of our Saviour's death the deeper we shall drink in 
 the cup of his resurrection and ascension to glory. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 90 
 
DAY 
 
 xxm 
 
 The waters of God's blessings flow downward, and 
 he who would drink them must stoop. 
 
 Our faith can never afford to approach God in 
 robes of royalty. Sackcloth and ashes are always 
 its proper clothing. Faith can never grow too strong 
 to pray, " God be merciful to me a sinner." We are 
 all Pharisees by nature, publicans only by grace, and 
 let us shun as we would a viper all claim to sinless 
 perfection. Paul never reached it, or if he did he 
 was far from being conscious of his high attainment. 
 When a comparatively young Christian he WTote, " I 
 am the least of the apostles." After he had grown 
 in grace a few years he could say, *^ I am less than 
 the least of all saints." When he had grown old in 
 God's service he could subscribe himself the " chief 
 of sinners." A certain Methodist bishop, in charg- 
 ing a class of licentiates, said, " Aim at perfection, 
 but I charge you, in God's name, never to profess 
 it." The place for true faith is on its knees before 
 a holy God, weeping tears of penitence for its sins 
 and rejoicing only in his righteousness. 
 
 A. C. Dixon. 
 
 When a man's face really shines like Moses' he 
 wists it not. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 It is not the sight of our sinful heart that humbles 
 us; it is a sight of Jesus Christ. I am undone be- 
 cause mine eyes have seen the King. 
 
 Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 91 
 
DAY 
 XXIV 
 
 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 ex- 
 pel 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. 
 
 We must distinguish what the Bible clearly sepa- 
 rates: the difference between having the Spirit as an 
 indwelling presence, and the baptism with the Spirit 
 as a working power. I care not how full of imper- 
 fections your life may be, just as surely as you are 
 a child of God the Spirit of God dwells in you. But 
 it is one thing to have the Spirit of God dwelling in 
 you, and quite another thing to have the Spirit of 
 God filling you. There is a great difference between 
 having a tenant in the house and having a tenant 
 take possession of the house. Now, while we do not 
 need, if we are saved, to pray that the Spirit may 
 dwell in us, we do need to pray that he may dwell 
 in us more fully. R. A. Torrey. 
 
 Just as little as you should be drunk with wine, just 
 so little should you live without being filled with the 
 Spirit. Andrew Murray. 
 
 92 
 
DAY 
 XXV 
 
 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall 
 believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as 
 thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one 
 in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.— 
 John xvii. 20, 21. 
 
 Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ has had his prayer 
 answered,— I suppose no one will doubt it,— and all 
 who believe upon him are, according to the Lord's 
 word and his Father's word, in union with him, then 
 see the consequences that follow. I never— I never 
 can be alone. I have joys. I never can have them 
 all to myself. He rejoices with me. I have sorrows. 
 I cannot monopolize them. Jesus knows them— 
 sympathizes with me in them. I have temptations; 
 he is touched with the feeling of them, for he was 
 in all points tempted like as I am, yet without sin, 
 that I might have a merciful high priest, and might 
 go to him with confidence and present my petition 
 to him. In this life I can be in no position of lone- 
 liness. Where I am he is with me. Lying down on 
 my bed, he is beside me. Rising in the morning, he 
 is with me. Walking through the weary paths of 
 life, he is with me— cannot be separated from me. 
 Otherwise this union is not true. As nothing that 
 concerns me can concern me alone, even so nothing 
 that concerns Jesus concerns him alone. He is in- 
 terested in all that concerns me, and I am interested 
 in all that concerns him, or there is no real union. 
 
 Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 Every Christian should be like Christ, should live 
 with Christ, and find the fountains of his being in 
 Christ. Through such lives Christ can speedily win 
 the world to himself. R. E. Speer. 
 
 93 
 
DAY ^^.v^-^^^^^.^'^. 
 
 XXVI 
 
 Love is a wonderful thing. When a man tries to 
 love he has no real love, but the more opposition 
 true love meets the more it triumphs, for the more 
 it can manifest itself the more it rejoices. Beware, 
 above everything, of being unloving. If there is 
 one thing that grieves God and hinders the Spirit 
 (the fruit of the Spirit is love) it is the want of 
 lovingness. Love is rest, and rest is love, and where 
 there is no love the rest must be disturbed. The joy 
 of the Holy Ghost is the joy of always loving, of 
 losing my own life in love to others. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 There is a day coming in which God will bring to 
 light every little hidden service of his children, and 
 will let assembled worlds see the delight he has had 
 in that which has met no eye, but which has glad- 
 dened the heart of our Father in heaven. For he 
 is a Father indeed, and it is delightful to realize that 
 all that fatherhood ever has been or has produced, 
 all that motherhood has ever brought to our notice, 
 all, indeed, that is noble and pure and tender and 
 true, is but an outcome of the great, loving heart of 
 our heavenly Father. There is more light in the 
 glorious sun than in any of the thousands of reflec- 
 tions in the little dewdrops. So there is more love 
 and complacency and gratification in his children in 
 the heart of our heavenly Father than all the grati- 
 fication that earthly parents and earthly friends have 
 ever felt in the objects of their affection. 
 
 J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 94 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvn 
 
 Paul says that we are to be sound in faith, in 
 patience, and in love. If a man is unsound in his 
 faith the clergy take the ecclesiastical sword and 
 cut him off at once. But he may be ever eo unsound 
 in charity, in patience, and nothing is said about 
 that. We must be sound in faith, in love, and in 
 patience if we are to be true to God. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 How many there are to-day pretending to be lov- 
 ing both God and the world, men and wom.en trying to 
 touch the things that they should hate, and yet pre- 
 tending to be living in the closest friendship of Jesus 
 Christ! It is easy to put on the garments, but it is 
 easier to see through the thin, miOcking gauze of 
 them the true impossibility of such living. Just so 
 truly as God and the world are at war, so the mo- 
 ment our lives are laid down in uncompromising 
 obedience to him they are laid down in utter and 
 uncompromising contrariety with the things he has 
 told us we are not to love. We must choose be- 
 tween the evil love of the world and the overflowing 
 love of God. 
 
 Robert E. Speer. 
 
 Contemplate the love of Christ, and you will love. 
 Stand before that mirror, reflect Christ's character, 
 and you will be changed into the same image from 
 tenderness to tenderness. There is no other way. 
 You cannot love to order. You can only look at the 
 lovely object, and fall in love with it and grow into 
 likeness to it. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 S5 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvm 
 
 As long as we dare to think that secular life must 
 be a separate existence from the spiritual, that 
 earthly engagements cannot be fulfilled in uninter- 
 rupted communion with God, just so long are we liv- 
 ing outside the purposes of God, contradicting the 
 majesty of our true nature, and den3ing the efficacy 
 of the gospel of the Lord Jesus. There may be a 
 manifold manifestation of the great purposes of life, 
 but throughout all these manifestations there ought 
 to run one great unity of principle, one purpose, 
 one idea, and, unless that unity of life pervades every 
 operation in which we engage, it is no wonder that 
 we lack communion with God the Father, and with 
 his Son, Jesus Christ, that religion is divorced from 
 business, and that what men call the privileges of 
 the gospel are in their minds disassociated with the 
 duties and the demands of daily existence. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 The first and chief need of Christian life is fellovNT- 
 ship with God. The divine life within us comes 
 from God and is entirely dependent upon him. As 
 I need every moment afresh the air to breathe, as 
 the sun every moment sends down its light afresh, 
 so it is only in the direct living communication with 
 God that my soul can be strong. The manna of one 
 day was corrupt when the next day came. I must 
 every day have fresh grace from heaven, and I 
 obtain it only in direct waiting upon God himself. 
 Begin each day by tarrying before God and letting 
 him touch you. Take time to meet God. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 96 
 
DAY 
 XXIX 
 
 It would be well if the Christians of to-day would 
 learn a lesson in prompt obedience from the servants 
 of Ahasuerus in publishing the king^s decree con- 
 cerning the Jews in Persia. This was one of the 
 greatest empires of antiquity, reaching from the 
 borders of the Mediterranean Sea to the Indus, and 
 from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. It was 
 fifteen hundred miles east and west, and a thousand 
 miles north and south— as large as the Congo basin 
 is to-day. The messengers of Ahasuerus had to 
 reach all the provinces with the utmost haste. They 
 had no postal facilities, no telegraphs or telephones, 
 no steam-vessels or steam-cars; nothing but drome- 
 daries, camels, and horses to depend upon. They 
 had to translate this decree into all the various 
 languages in all the one hundred and twenty-seven 
 provinces— not only translating it, but transcribing 
 it by hand, for they had no printing-presses. The 
 messengers had to publish the decree to every indi- 
 vidual in all the provinces. How long did it take to 
 accomplish this work? Upon the thirteenth day of 
 the twelfth month the commandment had been pub- 
 lished to all the people, and the Jews were ready on 
 that day to fight for their lives. In other words, it 
 took ten days less than nine months to do it. And 
 we have taken nineteen hundred years nearly to 
 carry the gospel to one quarter of the human race, 
 when we have the command of the King of kings to 
 do the King's business in haste. Now that is a 
 burning shame to Christendom, and we shall not 
 honor the Lord if we do not get stirred up on this 
 subject to do our duty in the evangelization of the 
 world. Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 97 
 
DAY 
 XXX 
 
 Word and work— the two W's. You will soon get 
 spiritually gorged if it is all Word and no work, and 
 you will soon be without power if it is all work and 
 no Word. If you want to be healthy Christians 
 there must be both Word and work. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 It is by steadfast drilling into the bed-rock of the 
 Word that we are able to bring up the drafts which 
 we can pass to others. 
 
 A. F. SCHAUFFLER. 
 
 If we are going to have the true secret of Chris- 
 tian leadership we must study that leader of Chris- 
 tian leaders, Jesus Christ. There we find the secret 
 that he came not to be ministered unto; he went 
 about as one that served; he taught that he who 
 would be greatest must be the servant of all: that 
 is the secret of enduring leadership in things spirit- 
 ual. John R. Mott. 
 
 A telegraph-wire must be completely insulated 
 before it can convey the electric communication. 
 So we must be separated from the world before God's 
 message to sinners can have free course through us. 
 When Saladin looked at the sword of Richard Coeur 
 de Lion, he wondered that a blade so ordinary should 
 have wrought such mighty deeds. The English king 
 bared his arm and said, " It was not the sword that 
 did these things; it was the arm of Richard." We 
 should be instruments that the Lord can use, and 
 when he has used us the glory should all be his. 
 
 George F. Pentecost. 
 
 98 
 
DAY 
 XXXI 
 
 We are the members of the "body of Christ"; he 
 is the head. Be careful, then, for the head suffers 
 with the body. J. Wilbur Chapman. 
 
 Nothing is more dishonoring to Jesus Christ than 
 a church that is apostate and worldly and unconse- 
 crated. A man died some years ago, a very eminent 
 literary man, who had a magnificent head, lofty 
 browed and intellectual; but by a sad misfortune he 
 had that head upon a crippled body. He was a dwarf, 
 a hunchback, and you could not look upon him with- 
 out pity. '' What a splendid head," you would say, 
 "but alas, that it rests upon such an unsightly 
 form!" Shall Jesus Christ be so dishonored that 
 he shall have a body unsanctified and misshapen, 
 concerning which the angels might exclaim, "Alas! 
 what a noble head, but what an ignoble body!" 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 The church is compared to the body of which 
 Jesus Christ is the head; therefore, endeavor to 
 keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 
 Men make a great mistake in trying by their evan- 
 gelical alliances and their compacts to make a unity; 
 it would be a great deal better if they would do 
 their best to keep the unity that the Spirit of God 
 has made. We are members of one another because 
 we are members of the same head. 
 
 The hand may say the foot is not in the body, but 
 it cannot help its being in the body, and after I have 
 got to heaven my High-church friend will see that 
 I have been in the body all the time, and he will be 
 sorry he didn't recognize me before. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 99 
 
My Jesus, I love thee; I know thou art mine; 
 For thee all the follies of sin I resign; 
 My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art thou; 
 If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now. 
 
 I love thee because thou hast first loved me. 
 And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree; 
 I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow; 
 If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now. 
 
 I will love thee in life, I will love thee in death, 
 And praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath; 
 And say when the death-dew lies cold on my brow, 
 If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now. 
 
 In mansions of glory and endless delight, 
 I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright; 
 I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow, 
 If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 100 
 
D\4onth of <tApril 
 
 Easter Lilies 
 tA. J. Gordon Gordon Laki 
 
i 
 
A stanza from an old hymn says that Jesus Christ 
 " burst the bars " of the grave and '' tore its bands 
 away." If a man bursts the bars of State's prison 
 all the police force of the commonwealth is after him 
 to bring him back. If, on the contrary, he has 
 served out his full time, all the power in the State 
 cannot retain him a single hour longer. Jesus 
 Christ must remain in the grave three days " accord- 
 ing to Scripture," but after the three days had ex- 
 pired there was not power enough in heaven or in 
 hell to retain him another moment. 
 
 Bunyan ^\Tites graphically about "the terrible 
 Captain Sepulcher and his standard-bearer. Corrup- 
 tion." I think I hear those two talking over the 
 situation on the night that Jesus Christ was buried. 
 Corruption says to Sepulcher: ''Hold fast to that 
 man in Joseph's tomb yonder! There is a rumor 
 that he proposes to break forth from the grave. Do 
 not let him go till I can fasten upon him." But 
 Corruption fails to touch him, because it had been 
 written, " Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see 
 corruption," Then hell from beneath cries out, 
 "Hold fast to this man! If he comes out he will 
 make a breach in the walls of death through which 
 all the prisoners of Hades will escape." And "he 
 that hath the power of death, even the devil," ex- 
 claims in fright, " If thou let this man go, thou art 
 not Satan's friend!" But vain the seal, and vain 
 the watch, and vain the grip of death, and vain the 
 doors of the tomb. As it began to dawn the first 
 day of the week there began to be a mighty stir in 
 the sepulcher; terrible Captain Sepulcher tightens 
 his grip, but in vain. " It was not possible that he 
 should be holden of death." A. J. Gordon. 
 
 101 
 
DAY 
 
 n 
 
 If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your 
 sins.— 1 Cor. xv. 17. 
 
 The belief in the incarnation stands or falls with 
 the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 
 You may just as well shut up the Bible, recall the 
 missionaries, pull down the churches, and let us eat, 
 drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die and don't 
 know what is coming next, if it be not true that 
 Jesus Christ rose from the dead. 
 
 If a man should tell me now that a man who had 
 been buried two days ago had been seen to-day I 
 should not believe it. On an ordinary question I 
 will believe the testimony of men; but if I should be 
 told that an ordinary man who had been in his grave 
 two days had come out, I should say the presump- 
 tion against it was enormous; But Jesus Christ was 
 not an ordinary man. We take the specific evidence 
 after the resurrection of Christ as an argument for 
 that resurrection ; but the Old Testament also creates 
 a presumption in behalf of the resurrection of Jesus 
 Christ in advance. The ordinary man dying and 
 going into his grave, it is presumable that he will 
 not rise from the dead. Jesus Christ stands so 
 manifestly at the climax of Jewish history, and is 
 so organically related to it, that when he came into 
 the world he came as an exceptional man, and when 
 he died there was an antecedent presumption of his 
 resurrection as was the case with no other man. 
 So that you can say, as it is said in the Acts, "It 
 was not possible that he should be holden of death." 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 102 
 
DAY 
 
 m 
 
 I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in 
 my bonds. ... If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, 
 put that on mine account.— Phil. 10, 18. 
 
 We may draw most helpful lessons from the study 
 of Paul's letter to Philemon, as illustrating in the 
 characters of Philemon and Onesimus and Paul, mas- 
 ter, slave, and friend, the relation of the sinner to 
 God and Christ. 
 
 The sinner is the property of God. He has fled 
 from God, and is now under the curse of alienation 
 and separation. Not only so, but he has wTonged 
 God, and has robbed him besides. The law of God 
 provides no right of asylum for the sinner. He is 
 the absolute property of God— both a bond-slave 
 and a criminal. This ownership is not made void by 
 the sinner's flight. He may break the relationship 
 he sustains to God, but he cannot break the obliga- 
 tion. There is but one thing conceded to him; that 
 is the right of appeal. He may run to Christ, who 
 is the partner of God, and through his intercession 
 seek mercy. Jesus receives him. He comforts him. 
 Not only so, but he manumits him by adoption— be- 
 gets him in bonds as his own son. And then he 
 sends him back to the Father to be received as him- 
 self, and he says, "If he hath wronged thee, or 
 oweth thee aught, put that on my account;" and 
 with his own signature, written in blood, he says, 
 " I will repay." The reception of the sinner is ex- 
 ceedingly abundant— more than he can ask or think. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 103 
 
DAY 
 IV 
 
 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a 
 heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the 
 flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the 
 eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your 
 conscience from dead works to serve the living God ? — Heb. ix. 
 13, 14. 
 
 That is the great central thought of the atone- 
 ment: the sacrifice of Christ's own blood, not the 
 blood of bulls and goats, shall "purge your con- 
 science from dead works to serve the living God." 
 
 John A. Broadus. 
 
 There are two things which we must uphold and 
 hold fast— the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross, 
 and the priesthood of Christ in heaven. 
 
 Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 The great strength in us and the great stumbling- 
 block by which the devil himself will be overthrown 
 is the blood. By the blood of the Lamb we are saved, 
 we are strengthened; by the blood of the Lamb we 
 are misunderstood, we are scoffed at. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 The last that the world ever saw of Christ, he 
 was hanging on the cross. The last business of his 
 life was the saving of a poor penitent thief. That 
 was a part of his triumph; that was one of the 
 glories attending his death. No doubt Satan said 
 to himself, " I will have the soul of that thief pretty 
 soon down here in the caverns of the lost." But 
 Christ snapped the fetters of this soul and set him 
 at liberty. Satan lost his prey. " The Lion of the 
 tribe of Judah " conquered the lion of hell. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 104 
 
DAY 
 V 
 
 I am the vine, ye are the branches.— John xv. 5. 
 
 We know how close is the union between the vine 
 and its branches. The same life that nourishes the 
 root nourishes the most distant spray on the most 
 distant point of the most distant branch. When 
 our dear Lord was here he was the vine— he bore 
 all the fruit himself. But now that he is trans- 
 planted into heaven and on the throne, he bears all 
 his fruit in his branches. But all the life in all the 
 leaves and all the blossoms and all the fruit borne 
 here comes down from him as the root. It is the 
 natural order reversed. How shall I call it? The 
 root above, and the branches below. That is what 
 we ought to be— branches in Jesus, growing out of 
 his fullness, spreading his name and his fragrance 
 over this whole world. Till we are in Christ we 
 cannot serve Christ. Vital Christianity in the doc- 
 trine is union with the Son of God. Till we have 
 union with him we have no power. Corrupt trees 
 cannot bring forth good fruit, and we are corrupt 
 to the core. Christianity in the practical is just the 
 manifestation of union with the Son of God in our 
 walk and conduct in the church and in the world. 
 
 Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 Adam had rest and fellowship with God, but Adam 
 fell because he was not so perfectly linked to God 
 as to prevent the possibility of Satan injuring him. 
 But we are so linked unto God in Christ Jesus that 
 it will be impossible for us to fall from that position. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 105 
 
DAY 
 VI 
 
 There was a famous sculptor in Paris, who exe- 
 cuted a great work which stands to-day in the Ga- 
 lerie des Beaux Arts. He was a great genius, and 
 this was his last work; but, like many a great genius, 
 he was very poor and lived in a small garret. This 
 garret was his workshop, his studio, and his bed- 
 room. He had this statue almost finished in clay 
 when, one night, a frost suddenly fell over Paris. 
 The sculptor lay on his bed, with the statue before 
 him in the center of the fireless room. As the chill 
 air came down upon him he saw that if the cold got 
 more intense the water in the interstices of the clay 
 would freeze. So the old man arose and heaped the 
 bedclothes reverently upon the statue. In the morn- 
 ing, when his friends came in, they found the old 
 sculptor dead; but the image was saved! 
 
 Preserve at any cost the image into which you 
 are being changed by the unseen Sculptor, who is 
 every moment that you are in his presence working 
 at that holy task. The Spirit of God is busy now re- 
 creating men, within these commonplace lives of ours, 
 in the image of God. Henry Drummond. 
 
 Christ said, " Peter, deny yourself." Instead of 
 doing that Peter denied his Lord. Just think of it! 
 It was a choice between that ugly, cursed self and 
 that beautiful, blessed Son of God; and Peter chose 
 self. No wonder that he wept bitter tears. 
 
 Christians, look at your own lives in the light of 
 the words of Jesus. Is there self-will, self -pleasing? 
 Remember this: every time you please yourself you 
 deny Jesus. It is one of the two. I must please him 
 and deny self, or please myself and deny him. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 106 
 
DAY 
 
 vn 
 
 In many a man's life in that harbor out of which 
 he sails his little boat two vessels arise. One ves- 
 sel has the sound of laughter, rich and full, upon 
 it; the sound of music and dancing upon it; gaudy- 
 colors float from its mastheads: it is the ship of the 
 "World and its Lusts." Another ship lies in the 
 offing, a good, stanch boat, free from things that 
 are for the pleasures of the flesh, but filled with a 
 royal crew, captained by One who never failed to 
 lead his vessel safely through to the desired haven. 
 Upon one of those two boats you and I must embark. 
 Most of us have already put off our little boats on 
 the sea with the Brittany fisherman's prayer, " Keep 
 me, God; the sea is so large, and my boat is so 
 small." But perhaps some are still halting between 
 the choice of the world and the good will of our 
 God. The two boats put out to sea; the sky is blue, 
 the Father's face is sweet and tender, and the sea is 
 sweet and peaceful ; and the two vessels sail quickly 
 over the waters. By and by the wind comes, and 
 that rocky cape which every vessel must round before 
 she reaches her haven looms up in the gathering 
 darkness. There, while the clouds surge heavy 
 overhead, and the night-birds sweep, and the waters 
 pitch and toss tempestuously beneath, the "World 
 and its Lusts " has passed away, but the good ship 
 of the " Will of God " rides on. The storms go down 
 and the clear sun shines out lovingly after the rain, 
 and by and by the light breaks upon the hills of the 
 better country, and the " Good Will of God " casts 
 anchor in the haven of my Father's land at the very 
 threshold of my Father's house. 
 
 Robert E. Speer. 
 
 107 
 
DAY 
 
 vm 
 
 Upon the coast of France, the sailors say, there 
 is a buried city; and on quiet nights, as they are 
 rocked upon the deep, they think that they can hear 
 the tones of the buried bells coming up from the 
 steeples far down in the ocean depths with muffled 
 sound. So in the hearts of men of the world who 
 have lived lives of self-indulgence and evil there are 
 muffled tones from the depths of their nature, ring- 
 ing in the steeples of conscience, that tell them to 
 choose what is right and to shun what is wrong. 
 
 Conscience is not simply the knowledge of right 
 and wrong; it is the judgment-seat of God in minia- 
 ture. Every Christian carries the judgment-seat 
 inside of him, and day after day he stands before 
 it; and the Son of man, to whom all judgment is 
 committed, sits upon the throne of this inner court, 
 and not only tells us that this or the other is right 
 or wrong, but he goes further and he pronounces 
 sentence with a kiss of infinite delight or with a look 
 of infinite sorrow. He says to each of us, " Come, 
 thou blessed soul, loved of my Father and me; come 
 into the joy that I have prepared for you; " or, " De- 
 part into the darkness of unfellowship and broken 
 communion, thou who hast disobeyed the dictates 
 of the inner voice!" We cannot doubt that there 
 is a judgment to come when we carry a judgment 
 in miniature within us. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 The more you know of God's Word, the more you 
 can know God's Word; and the more you are living 
 by God's Word the better you can understand God's 
 Word. But if you keep it at arm's-length, and 
 dally with it, and play around it, then years may 
 pass without your having progressed one whit. 
 
 John A. Broadus. 
 
 108 
 
DAY 
 DC 
 
 There is, I grant, a place for the reason in con- 
 sidering this question about the information given 
 to us about salvation; there is also a place for the 
 church as the great agency in transmitting this in- 
 formation; but the greatest place, the most conspic- 
 uous place, the supreme place, belongs to the Bible, 
 and it will not do to say that the reason, the church, 
 and the Bible are coordinate, because they do not 
 stand in any such relation to one another. It is very 
 absurd to put the reason and the church in such re- 
 lation to the Bible as to imply that either could be 
 a substitute for the Bible. 
 
 Suppose that a man gets a telegram to-day from 
 his friend in China, sad or happy as the case may be, 
 and he says, " I don't need any message. I have my 
 o\^Ti reason, and I can excogitate out of my o"«ti con- 
 sciousness all that I need know of my friend in China." 
 " Oh no," you reply; '' your reason is the condition of 
 your being able to read this message, but it is no sub- 
 -stitute for the information, and will not give you the 
 information which the message contains." But he re- 
 plies, " I don't need any message; I have an unbroken 
 continuity of telegraph-\\Tre from here to the anti- 
 podes." "Xo," you reply; ''the telegi'aph-boy is 
 useful and the telegraph-wire is an important thing 
 as making the connection between you and the mes- 
 sage, but what you needed was the message.^' 
 
 Your reason is the condition of your being able 
 to read the message which your heavenly Father has 
 sent you; and the church has performed a most im- 
 portant function in transmitting the message; and 
 the Bible, my friends, is the message. 
 
 Franxis L. Patton. 
 
 109 
 
DAY 
 X 
 
 Look at that man, Paul. Men called him a madman. 
 I wish we had a lot of that kind of madness now. 
 Some one has said, " If he was mad, he had a good 
 keeper on the way, and a fine asylum at the end of 
 the route." He could afford to be mad; he was a 
 man that turned the world upside down— it was 
 wrong side up before. There was a man who conse- 
 crated his life to God. He had one motto: "This 
 one thing I do." He hadn't forty aims; if he had, 
 you would never have heard of him. He threw his 
 whole life into one channel. " This one thing I do, 
 forgetting those things which are behind, and reach- 
 ing forth unto those things which are before, I press 
 toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of 
 God in Christ Jesus." 
 
 The world looked down upon him, but the world 
 wasn't worthy of him. He is well known in heaven. 
 If you had asked the rich men in Corinth what kind 
 of a man Paul was, they would have said, *' Huh! he 
 is a fanatic— gone clean mad. He's honest enough, 
 but he is a madman." He has been gone eighteen 
 hundred years, and now his epistles are going to the 
 very corners of the earth. Let us get right on 
 Paul's platform, and have one aim: "One thing I 
 do." Let the kingdom be first in everything, and 
 everything else will be added. We needn't be 
 bothering our heads and troubling our minds about 
 what our future is going to be. If we are wholly 
 given up to God, he will lead us. Paul never marked 
 out the path he was going to tread. Hold your reins 
 loosely, and God will guide you, 
 
 D. L. Moody, f 
 
 110 
 
DAY 
 XI 
 
 The light of Christ strikes down on our hearts 
 and lives, and, as in Switzerland the sun at dawn 
 only strikes the loftiest mountains and leaves the 
 valleys as yet unreached, so, when Christ first begins 
 to deal with a soul, he does not show the soul the 
 whole of its depravity, but he deals with one or two 
 or three outstanding sins. Directly the soul sees 
 that, it says, " I will give that up to God," and it 
 shoots up on to another level, and for some happy 
 weeks or months lives upon a higher level of Chris- 
 tian enjoyment than ever before. Then there comes 
 another moment. It may be a month or a year 
 after, and the great light of God's revelation within 
 reveals something else which has never been noticed 
 or suspected, which the soul has done comparatively 
 innocently; but instantly that sin stands out before 
 God as the one thing to be dealt with. The soul 
 shudders for a moment and then says, " I treat that 
 as I treated the former one; I yield it," and it shoots 
 right up again and goes on to a higher level than 
 ever. The process is repeated upon that higher 
 platform. So life is one great stairway upon our 
 dead selves as stepping-stones to higher things. 
 My growth is simply because God Almighty is con- 
 stantly revealing things deeper and deeper. As a 
 line is made up of a number of dots, so Christian 
 life is made up of a number of surrenders to God, 
 but you do not think them to be surrenders because 
 your heart is so taken up with what he is giving 
 that you drop the thing that holds you to take the 
 better thing he gives. God wants to deal with you 
 as his child. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 Ill 
 
DAY 
 
 xn 
 
 Take heed therefore, that the light which is in thee be not 
 darkness.— Luke xi. 35. 
 
 Beware of moral color-blindness! A man's think- 
 ing that he sees the truth aright does not shield him 
 from the consequences of his error. Conscientious 
 wrong-doing is never safe doing. In moral color- 
 blindness there is moral peril, and you may be morally 
 color-blind without knowing it. The Mosaic law de- 
 clared, " If any one sin, . . . though he knew it not, 
 yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity." The lips 
 of the loving Jesus said also of the sinning servant, 
 " He that knew not, and did commit things worthy 
 of stripes, shall be beaten," although with fewer 
 stripes than the conscious transgressor. 
 
 If a color-blind engineer mistakes a red signal for 
 a white one at an open drawbridge, the resulting 
 calamity is as terrible to himself and the train-load 
 of passengers as if he had deliberately defied a token 
 of danger which he read correctly. 
 
 One's danger of misreading the signals along his 
 personal life-course is no less in the moral world 
 than in the physical. Man's conscience, like a ship's 
 compass, should be corrected according to a divine 
 standard. It must be set right by comparison with 
 the true standard of the Sun of Righteousness, rated 
 frequently by the Bible record, and guarded watch- 
 fully, lest by careless usage its accuracy be lost and 
 the soul in mid-ocean be without a guide. Unless 
 you know how much your conscience chronometer 
 slows or quickens in the various latitudes where you 
 sail, you will never be able to learn your bearings 
 accurately or to lay your course correctly. 
 
 Henry Clay Trumbull. 
 
 112 
 
DAY 
 Xffl 
 
 Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the 
 Lord.— 2 Cor. vi. 17. 
 
 That command means not only come out, but it 
 means also stay out. Some come out and then 
 go back. Some come out and straddle the line. 
 Christ draws sharp lines. " He that is not with me 
 is against me." Some church-members have their 
 roots on one side of the church w^all and their boughs 
 all hang over and drop the fruit on the world's side. 
 It is not only a question of where your roots are, but 
 w^here the boughs hang and the apples fall. We want 
 more in these days of clear, distinct, emphatic, 
 Christly religion, so that we do not need to look into 
 the church-roll to find out whether a man is a Chris- 
 tian or not. Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 Probably the most of the difficulties of trying to 
 live the Christian life arise from attempting to half 
 live it. Henry Drummond. 
 
 We can and do make it hard for Christ to confess 
 us. For as the devil of old came into the presence 
 of God accusing Job, so now the devil in a sense 
 enters the courts of heaven accusing us before the 
 Father. Here is some poor trembling, faltering 
 sinner who walks unworthy of the vocation where- 
 unto he is called. The devil comes before God, and 
 says, "Ah, yes; that is one of yours, who promised 
 to serve you and be faithful, and yet see how he is 
 living." Christ's reply is, " Well, he has confessed 
 me before men, and I promised to confess him be- 
 fore my Father. Yes; he is one of mine, and I am 
 hoping that this and that will remove every trace 
 of evil." It is a hard thing for Christ to confess us 
 in the face of our many inconsistencies, but he is 
 faithful to his promise. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 113 
 
DAY 
 XIV 
 
 Suppose that you see a mother with a beautiful 
 little babe, six months old, rosy and chubby. It 
 cannot speak, it cannot walk; but we are not troubled 
 about that, for it is natural. Suppose, however, 
 that a year later you find the child not grown at all, 
 and three years later still the same; you would at 
 once say, "There must be some terrible disease;" 
 that baby, that at six months old was a joy to every 
 one, has become to the mother and to all her friends 
 a source of anxiety and of sorrow. It was quite 
 right, at six months old, that it should eat nothing 
 but milk; but years have passed by, and it remains 
 in the same weakly state. 
 
 Now this is just the condition of many believers. 
 They are converted, they know what it is to have 
 assurance and faith; they believe in pardon for sin, 
 they begin to work for God, and yet, somehow, there 
 is very little growth in spirituality, in the real hea- 
 venly life. You come into contact with them, and 
 you feel at once there is something wanting; there 
 is none of the beauty of holiness or of the power of 
 God's Spirit in them. Is it not sad to see a believer 
 who has been converted five, ten, twenty years, and 
 who has yet no growth and no strength and no joy 
 of holiness! Andrew Murray. 
 
 There are a great many church-members who are 
 just hobbling about on crutches. They can just 
 make out that they are saved, and imagine that is 
 all that constitutes a Christian in this nineteenth 
 century. As far as helping others is concerned, 
 that never enters their heads. They think if they 
 can get along themselves they are doing amazingly 
 well. They have no idea what the Holy Ghost wants 
 to do through them. D. L. Moody, 
 
 114 
 
DAY 
 XV 
 
 As long as the soldier slinks outside the battle he 
 carries a whole skin; but let him plunge in and fol- 
 low the captain, and he will soon have the bullets 
 flying about him. Some of you have had a good 
 time because there was no use in the devil wasting 
 powder and shot upon you; you haven't been doing 
 him any harm; but directly you begin to wake up 
 and set to work for God, the devil will set a thou- 
 sand evils to worrying you, or he may come himself 
 to see to you. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 If Satan was dangerous when Paul wrote his epis- 
 tles, how much more dangerous must he be now, for 
 he has so much more experience! 
 
 Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 *^ Stand fast therefore in all the armor of GodJ^ We 
 are in the heavenlies to fight the devil and all the 
 principalities and powers who are trying to draw 
 us out from our fortress where God has placed us. 
 There can be no peace between us and the devil; 
 we must fight him to the very end, because he is 
 always assailing our souls and trying to draw us out 
 of our high place in Christ Jesus. From the pit of 
 darkness to the throne of God Christ Jesus raises 
 us, and, putting us above all principalities and 
 powers, says, " Having done all, stand." But mind 
 that you take the whole armor of God; don't omjt 
 one piece. The devil is crafty; let him see one spot 
 without its covering, and he will hurl a fiery dart 
 that will make you groan with pain, and would 
 wound you unto death, perhaps, were it not for the 
 oil and wine which the good Samaritan deigns to 
 pour in. H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 115 
 
DAY 
 XVI 
 
 The pleasure of sin may seem very great to you 
 when you are young, but what will be the end? 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 The biggest lie ever uttered in hell is that the 
 devil is an easy master and God a hard one. I would 
 like to drive that lie back into perdition; and I testify 
 now that my God is not a hard master and the devil 
 an easy one. I take up that old Book, and read, 
 "The way of the transgressor is hard;" and looking 
 around me, I see that it is hard. Go down to yon 
 prison, and ask the prisoner if it is not hard. Go 
 with me to the gambler, the drunkard, the forger, 
 who has lost everything, and ask if the way of the 
 transgressor is not hard. D. L. Moody. 
 
 When a man begins to argue with his conscience, 
 he is sure to be in the wrong. Are you trying to 
 justify yourself in an act? You may be sure that 
 that act, in your deepest consciousness, is not what 
 it should be. May I go deeper down? Is it not a 
 fact that with some of us there are sins which we 
 permit, but which we condemn? We excuse our- 
 selves by saying that they are hereditary, and that 
 we cannot help them. We say, " We have a strong 
 nature; we are swept by the winds of passion; some 
 men were born good, but we were born with a crook 
 in us." These excuses will not be accepted by God ; 
 his grace is sufficient; Christ can take a Simon and 
 make a Peter of him. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 There are many sins which must either be dealt 
 with suddenly or not at all. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 116 
 
DAY 
 
 xvn 
 
 There is an awful responsibility in the gospel. 
 It damns a man if he will not accept it. God 
 makes provision for a free pardon, but what if you 
 decline to take it? Here it is; God holds it out to 
 you— take it; if you do not there are a^vful conse- 
 quences, and the fault is yours, not God's. If you 
 turn your back on God you set your face toward the 
 devil. If the gospel needed to be preached to Cor- 
 nelius, then a man's own righteousness will not save 
 him; Cornelius must close with God's bargain; he 
 must take God's gift; that was all he had to do, and 
 all was right. H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 A sinner, telling of his conversion, may at one 
 time say, " If it had not been for that sermon, I 
 would have been a sinner still." Another time, " If 
 it had not been for that person." Another time, 
 " If I had not turned." But when he looks solemnly 
 into the whole case, he says, " Unless He who is 
 exalted a Prince and a Saviour had called me, and 
 the Holy Spirit had brought home the Word, I 
 should have been a lost sinner still." Let us cease 
 giving credit to ourselves and depending on our- 
 selves. Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 No man can believe on Jesus without repentance 
 toward God; but mark this: you never find repen- 
 tance toward Jesus spoken of in the Bible. Faith in 
 Jesus Christ produces repentance toward God; for 
 we do not know God till we come to Jesus. 
 
 Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 117 
 
DAY 
 
 xvm 
 
 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is 
 covered.— Ps. xxxii. 1. 
 
 There are two ways of covering sin, man's way and 
 God's way. You cover your sins and they will have 
 a resurrection sometime; let God cover them, and 
 neither devil nor man can find them. There are four 
 expressions in the Bible with regard to where God 
 puts sins. He puts them " behind his back." If God 
 has forgiven me, who shall bring a charge against 
 me? "He has blotted them out as a thick cloud." 
 You see a cloud to-night, and to-morrow there isn't 
 a cloud to be seen. " He casts them into the depths 
 of the sea." Som^e one has said, " Thank God that 
 it is a sea and not a river; a river might dry up, but 
 the sea cannot." The greatest blessing that ever 
 comes to me this side of heaven is when God for- 
 gives me. Have you been forgiven? The fourth 
 expression is that he removes them " as far as the 
 east is from the west." Do you know how far that 
 is? Perhaps some good mathematician will figure 
 that up. " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and 
 just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from 
 all unrighteousness." Then make sure that you are 
 forgiven. D. L. Moody. 
 
 If God had waited until we repented and asked his 
 pardon for our sins before he gave his Son and 
 brought to bear upon us all his loving-kindness to 
 bring us to repentance, we should have spent eter- 
 nity in hell. If you know that you hold any ill 
 will toward any one, and you wish God to work a 
 mighty work in your soul, get down and ask God to 
 cast the bitterness out of your heart. 
 
 R. A. TORREY. 
 118 
 
DAY 
 XDC 
 
 , God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.— 
 1 Pet. V. 5. 
 
 It is pride— unwillingness to admit that there is 
 any fundamental lack in our experience— that keeps 
 many back from spiritual blessing. Many preachers 
 of the gospel fail of the Holy Spirit's power simply 
 because they are unwilling to come right out and 
 humbly and frankly confess that there is such a 
 thing as the baptism with the Holy Ghost, which 
 they have never received, and that they have been 
 preaching all these years without that power which 
 Jesus commanded his disciples to wait for before 
 they stirred a step. R. A. Torrey. 
 
 Pride changed an archangel in heaven into a devil 
 in hell, and pride was the cause of all the wretched- 
 ness of man. Pride is the root of every sin; we 
 need to see that above everything we must be saved 
 from pride and self-will. It is good to be saved 
 from lying and stealing and murder and every other 
 evil; but a man needs, above all, to be saved from 
 the root of all sin. Andrew Murray. 
 
 There is a false humility, which is marked by two 
 signs: first, a reluctance to enter upon the work of 
 God, on the ground of incapacity. The true soldier 
 of Christ says, " These are not my words or my 
 works; I am doing my Master's work, and using my 
 Master's weapons in my Master's service." False 
 humility is detected, secondly, by self-consciousness. 
 If you think you are humble, you never are. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 119 
 
DAY 
 XX 
 
 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.— Heb. xii. 1. 
 
 Of course sins are weights, but all weights are not 
 sins. A sin necessarily impairs or destroys all com- 
 munion with God and all spiritual life, but a weight 
 is something which is not necessarily a sin, but 
 which is a hindrance. The author of this epistle says, 
 " Seeing the race which is set before us, let us not 
 only lay aside the sin which makes all holy running 
 impossible, but let us lay aside every weight which 
 prevents all rapid racing." 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 God is willing to do for any man or woman all 
 that he ever did for any one. If there is not a 
 mighty work of God in us, it is our own fault. Find 
 out what these hindrances are, and put them away. 
 
 R. A. TORREY. 
 
 Sometimes professing Christians are beset by 
 special hindrances to their usefulness— tendencies 
 of speech or action that mar the beauty of holiness 
 most sadly. What are you going to do \^ith the 
 evil habit, or the half-dozen, which are hindering 
 you? Fight them one by one; that is one way. 
 What did you do last winter when the panes of the 
 window were covered with frost, and you could not 
 see out of them? Did you scratch them off with a 
 knife? That would take too long. Heat up the 
 room and the frost goes off the pane. Warm up 
 the soul with the love of Christ and the bad habits 
 will run off. That is what Chalmers calls the " ex- 
 pulsive power of a new affection." Bring Jesus 
 Christ into the soul and you will overcome the evil 
 habits. Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 120 
 
DAY 
 XXI 
 
 God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and 
 God in him.— 1 John iv. 16. 
 
 The landscape is very much affected by the glass 
 through which you regard it. If that glass is yel- 
 low, everything looks yellow. If it is blue, every- 
 thing looks blue. If it is somber, everything looks 
 somber. Now, the man who is living a life of love 
 looks out upon his life through the love of God, and 
 the love of God has such a mysterious property in 
 it that it takes away from terrible things their ter- 
 ror, from dreadful things their dread, and from the 
 malignity of man his spite; and the soul looks with 
 a calm serenity upon all the circumstances of life, 
 and finds itself hushed and calm. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 You are not very holy if you are not very kind. 
 
 Andrew Bonar. 
 
 Christ's love to God and his love to man were not 
 two great passions, but one. He loved man because 
 he saw God in him. This must ever be the pulse of 
 a powerful philanthropy— to see God in man. In 
 the humblest— aye, in the most sinful human being 
 —we see one whom God loves, whom the Saviour 
 died for, and who may be an heir of the glory of 
 Christ. James Stalker. 
 
 Love stops not to think how much must be given 
 and what may be kept; it gives all. What is your 
 most precious possession? Money? Will you give 
 it up to him? Your voice? Give it up to him. 
 You must strip yourself, and God must have all. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 121 
 
DAY 
 XXII 
 
 Thou, Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up 
 of mine head.— Ps. iii. 3. 
 
 God is whatever you need him to be. There is 
 an old tradition among the Jews that the manna 
 tasted like whatever you were hungry for every 
 morning. If you woke up, for example, hungry for 
 Egyptian cucumbers and leeks, and did not murmur 
 after them, but thankfully took your manna, the 
 manna tasted like them. And God, he is our life; 
 he is all our strength and stay, and is whatever we 
 need him to be. Do you want a friend? God is a 
 friend. Do you want a guide? God is a guide. Do 
 you want somebody to be, as it were, your leader 
 in battle? The Lord is a man of war. Do you 
 want somebody to be your advocate, to stand in the 
 high court and plead your cause ? We have an Ad- 
 vocate. Our God adapts himself exactly to the very 
 shape and body and color of our wants. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 What God the Father was to his Son, Jesus Christ 
 is prepared to be to every one of us. In reading 
 the gospel, if you will substitute the thought of 
 Christ's relationship to yourself every time Jesus 
 speaks of the Father's attitude to him, you will find 
 that the gospel will have a new emphasis and mean- 
 ing. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 God wants all his sons and daughters to be very 
 happy, but he wants them to be happy in a way that 
 will help and not hinder them, 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 122 
 
DAY 
 
 xxm 
 
 I can do all things [I am all-prevailing] in him that strength- 
 eneth me.— Phil. iv. 13. 
 
 A great Methodist preacher in Manchester once 
 entered his pulpit, gave out this text, and began 
 solemnly reading in measured tones: " *I can do all 
 things '—Paul," he said, " you are a liar. ' I can do 
 all things'— Paul, thou art a terrible liar. Oh, I 
 beg your pardon, Paul; I see it now— 'through Christ 
 which strengtheneth me.' That is quite another 
 thing. Paul, you are quite right— ^ I can do all things 
 through Christ which strengtheneth me.' " This is 
 a secret worth learning, even though a man has to be 
 shut up in a prison with a galling chain on his wrist 
 in order to learn it. H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 Ah, if we but knew the power that worketh in us 
 and the power that worketh for us, there would be 
 less talking and more working, and things that seem 
 to be, from the point of unbelief and panic-stricken- 
 ness, almost too big to attempt, would be seen to be 
 natural and obvious. John McNeill. 
 
 There is a good deal of diiference between social 
 power, political power, and a kind of religious power. 
 Strength is one thing, and power is another. The 
 giant of Gath had strength, but David had power. 
 It would be a good idea when a man or woman wants 
 to join the church to ask him if he wants to be a 
 member with or without power. If he says, " With- 
 out power," it would be well to say, " We have plenty 
 of that kind of church-members. What we want is 
 a few with power." D. L. Moody. 
 
 We have a supernatural work to do, and we must 
 have supernatural power with which to do it. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 123 
 
DAY 
 XXIV 
 
 Every man who desires the pearl of great price 
 must sacrifice his all to buy it. It is not enough to 
 see the beauty and the glory and almost to taste the 
 joy of this wonderful life; you must become the 
 possessor of it. The man had found and seen, de- 
 sired and rejoiced, in the pearl of great price, but 
 he did not have it until he gave up everything and 
 bought it. 
 
 Ah, friends, there is a great deal which must be 
 given up: the world, its pleasure, its favor, its good 
 opinion. The world rejected Jesus and cast him 
 out, and you must take up the position of your Lord, 
 to whom you belong, and follow with the rejected 
 Christ. You have to give up all that is good in 
 yourself, even your past religious life and experi- 
 ence and successes, and to be humbled in the dust 
 of death. The blessed Spirit cannot teach us more 
 effectually only because the wisdom of man prevents 
 the light of God from shining in. 
 
 Some Christians may be holding fast some doubt- 
 ful thing, not willing to surrender and leave behind 
 the whole of the wilderness life and lust. 
 
 You cannot live every day in perfect fellowship 
 with God without giving up time to it. Hours and 
 days and weeks and months and years are gladly 
 given up by men and women to perfect themselves 
 in some profession or accomplishment. Do you ex- 
 pect that religion is so cheap that without giving 
 time you can find close fellowship with God? You 
 cannot. But, my brothers and sisters, this pearl is 
 worth everything. If you find that there is a strug- 
 gle within the heart, never mind. By God's grace, 
 if you will lie at his feet, you may depend upon it 
 deliverance will come. Andrew Murray. 
 
 •124 
 
DAY 
 XXV 
 
 In these days the work of rescuing the individual 
 sinner is very popular, but it is not so popular to 
 point out and put down the evil that destroys him, 
 because there are material interests involved. Men 
 are trying to save a few wrecks here and there, 
 while thousands go down and the wreckers keep 
 plying their trade. It is better to hang or reform 
 the wreckers than to save one wreck. 
 
 Charles A. Blanchard. 
 
 Possibly the most eloquent passage that Dr. Guth- 
 rie ever uttered was one in which he said little. He 
 was pleading for a ragged school, and a large con- 
 gregation of conservative people were opposing him. 
 One man said, " I am utterly opposed to this plan. 
 You intend to go down among those people who are 
 the very offscouring of the earth, dirty, filthy, in- 
 temperate, and vicious, expecting to make decent 
 folks of them. I for one do not care to spend my 
 money in trying to accomplish what is impossible. 
 The very rags on which your feet step as you go 
 along the street are better than they." Dr. Guth- 
 rie, filled with indignation, took a piece of white 
 paper and waved it before them. "My friends, 
 what is this paper made of? Is it not made of 
 those very rags that you trample under your feet? " 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 Never despair of any man. Seek him out to save 
 him, even though he be as the vilest reptile. Go 
 and die for him if necessary. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 125 
 
DAY 
 XXVI 
 
 When you are discouraged, when you see how 
 much worldliness there is in the church, defections 
 in doctrine and defections in the members, when 
 you see how little impression has been made on this 
 world by nineteen centuries of Christian history, do 
 you not think that it is an encouragement and a 
 help for the child of God to feel that he has a con- 
 ception of God's work, in which he is simply working 
 for God along the lines that God projected? He 
 has to do what God gives him to do, and leave the 
 result to God. He does not estimate his success by 
 figures, but he says, " I am commanded by my Lord 
 to go into all the world and preach the gospel to 
 every creature; I go as I am bidden, and leave the 
 strategy to my Lord himself. What he means, he 
 knows, but what he commands, I do." 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 church of the living God, awake!— arise from 
 your lethargy, and spring forward to the conflict. 
 Give your choicest sons, your loveliest daughters, 
 to this war of Immanuel. Consecrate to him your 
 silver and your gold. Fill up the mission treasuries 
 to overflowing. Let a shout go forth that shall leap 
 over seas and continents, and reach the ears of your 
 waiting hosts in those distant lands. And what 
 shall that shout be? Shall we catch the cry, 
 " March onward ! Seize every point of vantage. Call 
 upon the enemy to surrender. Reinforcements five 
 thousand strong are on the way; supplies in abun- 
 dance are coming. March on, and conquer the land 
 for Christ "? This is the shout that we long to 
 hear, but it has not come. Shall it be long delayed? 
 
 Jacob Chamberlain. 
 
 126 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvn 
 
 There was a defect in the faith of many who came 
 to Christ to be healed. But it was not the strength 
 of their faith Christ looked to, but the reality of it. 
 They got the cure though the hand that touched 
 him trembled. Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 Our faith needs strengthening, and it would be 
 an unkindness for God to give us great answers 
 to wavering faith. If we have not faith enough to 
 remove a mountain, we may climb it step by step, 
 and, when we reach its summit, our spiritual mus- 
 cles will be greatly strengthened, and from the 
 height thus gained we may breathe a purer atmo- 
 sphere and get a broader view. A. C. Dixon. 
 
 I heard of a woman in Scotland who was intro- 
 duced to a minister by another minister as a woman 
 of great faith. She instantly rebuked him by say- 
 ing, " No; I am a woman of little faith with a great 
 God." She had the right idea. If I have even a 
 little faith I have the power of the Almighty behind 
 me. D. L. MooDY. 
 
 The faith that rests in Jesus is the faith that 
 trusts itself to him with all it has. In our homes, 
 in our business, in society, everywhere, let Christ be 
 the one object of our trust. If you want power in 
 your house, in your Bible class, in your social circle 
 and your nation, or in the church of Christ, then 
 come into contact with Jesus in this rest of faith 
 that accepts his life fully, that trusts him fully for 
 yourself, and you will be able by faith to influence 
 your family, by faith to overcome the world, by 
 faith to bless others, by faith to live a life to the 
 glory of God. Andrew Murray. 
 
 127 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvra 
 
 If we really believe that God loved us with his 
 whole heart, what a help it would be to us in our 
 daily lives! We would then feel that we could go 
 at any moment into the presence of a loving Father, 
 who cared as much for us as if he had nothing else 
 to care for. A child may come into the presence 
 of its earthly father, except when the parent is oc- 
 cupied. Our heavenly Father is never so occupied. 
 At all times he will bestow on us the same attention. 
 A child likes to play in the presence of its earthly 
 parents, even though they take no notice of it, and 
 is happy simply because it is with them. How 
 much more ought we to be joyous in our heavenly 
 Father's presence! We need not be always singing. 
 The heart has a silent language. There is too little 
 of adoration— simple worship— at the present time. 
 
 Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 Worship is a blessed privilege, not only because 
 it brings supreme joy, but because it also brings 
 likeness to God. It is by communion with God we 
 are made like him. When Moses cam^e do^vn from 
 beholding God, his own face shone with a strange 
 and awful glory; and Paul says that " we all, reflect- 
 ing as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are trans- 
 formed into the same image from glory to glory." 
 Our complete transformation into his likeness will 
 come through the complete and undivided vision of 
 himself. "We shall be like him; for we shall see 
 him even as he is." 
 
 R. A, TORREY, 
 128 
 
DAY 
 XXIX 
 
 We talk about being " filled with the Spirit," yet 
 Paul goes beyond that in Ephesians iii. 14, where he 
 says, ''For this cause I bow my knees unto the 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, . . . that ye, 
 being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to 
 comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and 
 length, and depth, and height; and to know the love 
 of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might 
 be"— filled with? No; "that ye might he filled 
 into all the fullness of God." Do you not see the 
 difference? Here are empty vessels. You say, 
 "First get yourself empty and then full." I may 
 dip out and fill these vessels; but put an emipty ves- 
 sel into the ocean, and it quickly fills itself. This 
 seems to be Paul's thought. Archbishop Leighton 
 makes a beautiful comment on the words of Christ, 
 " Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." The arch- 
 bishop, lifting up his eyes to heaven, said, "Lord 
 Jesus, it is only a little joy that now enters into us; 
 but by and by we shall enter into joy as vessels put 
 into a sea of happiness." Cast yourself into the 
 great deeps of the Spirit, then there will be no 
 trouble in getting filled. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 The gift of Pentecost is for you; as you claimed 
 forgiveness from the hand of the dying Christ, j-ou 
 must claim your Pentecost from the hand of the 
 risen Christ; and as you were forgiven in answer to 
 your faith, so you shall now be endued and filled 
 and glorified by the Holy Ghost according to your 
 faith. The same law applies inviolably. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 129 
 
DAY 
 XXX 
 
 God loveth a cheerful giver.— 2 Cor. ix. 7. 
 
 In Herefordshire there was one very rich man in 
 my parish, who had a sudden paralytic stroke when 
 I was away from home for a holiday. He was a 
 common, ignorant farmer, and had come into eighty 
 thousand pounds through the death of a brother. 
 He had told me that he did not care for his brother's 
 money because he had as much as he wanted before, 
 and yet he had not given more than sixpence a year 
 for charity. As soon as I returned home I went 
 down to see him, and he said, "The Lord has 
 stricken me, and I am afraid I may die. I have sent 
 for you at once that I may do what I suppose is 
 right before God; I want to go to heaven, and I want 
 you to take a hundred pounds for the poor." I 
 looked him straight in the face, and said, " Do you 
 think you are going to buy your soul's way to glory 
 by a dirty hundred pounds! Give your money where 
 you like; I v^dll not touch it!" That was rather 
 strong; but, blessed be God, the man lived seven 
 years, and was a very different man before he died. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 There is no happiness in having and getting, but 
 only in giving; half the world is on the wrong scent 
 in the pursuit of happiness. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 "Our citizenship is in heaven." Any Christian 
 who can realize the meaning of that text will be a 
 Christian wholly separated from the world. He will 
 pay taxes where his treasure is. Nine tenths of the 
 Christians are paying taxes do\vn here in the world. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 130 
 
DAonth of DA ay 
 
 Apple "Blossoms 
 F. "B. Meyer The Seminary 'Buildings 
 
^^^^ 
 
 And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion [the first- 
 born son's portion] of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou 
 hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am 
 taken from thee, it shall be so.— 2 Kings ii. 9. 
 
 That was the condition of the coveted blessing— 
 "if thou see me." Do you not think that Elisha 
 kept a sharp watch on Elijah ? Then suddenly there 
 swept down that chariot of fire; Elijah stepped into 
 his Father^s carriage, which had come to take him 
 home, and was swept away up to heaven. As Elisha 
 watched him, Elijah seems to have suddenly thought 
 he would not want the old mantle up there, that he 
 would get a new white robe; so he threw the old 
 one down at Elisha's feet. Then Elisha took it up 
 reverently, and said to himself, "I have seen him 
 go, and I have what he promised." I doubt not the 
 devil said to him, " Ah, you are a fool ! you have 
 nothing but an old mantle that is not worth your 
 carrying." " Yes," said Elisha, " I have something 
 more than that— I have his power." " You do not 
 feel it, do you ? " " No ; but that makes no difference ; 
 I have it for all that. I saw him go, and I have it 
 though I do not feel it." When he reached the 
 Jordan there were a number of young students 
 watching him. I think the devil said, "Now see 
 those shrewd young fellows looking at you; if you 
 make a failure, they will never forget it; and you 
 are bound to fail. Wait until they have gone home 
 to supper, and when it is a bit dusk you can practise 
 with your old mantle." " No," he said, " I am not 
 going to practise with it; I do not need to; I have my 
 master's power, and I am going to act in faith." And 
 he struck the waters in faith ; in the act of faith he 
 found he received that for which he trusted God. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 131 
 
DAY 
 
 n 
 
 ^^T^^^^^^^^-^ 
 
 Would it not be better to leave to-morrow with 
 God? That is what is troubling men; to-morrow's 
 temptations, to-morrow's difficulties, to-morrow's 
 burdens, to-morrow's duties. Martin Luther in his 
 autobiography says, "I have one preacher that I 
 love better than any other upon earth ; it is my little 
 tame robin, which preaches to me daily. I put his 
 crumbs upon my windov/-sill, especially at night. 
 He hops on to the sill when he wants his supply, 
 and takes as much as he desires to satisfy his need. 
 From thence he always hops on to a little tree close 
 by, and lifts up his voice to God and sings his carol 
 of praise and gratitude, tucks his little head under 
 his wing and goes fast asleep, and leaves to-morrow 
 to look after itself. He is the best preacher that I 
 have on earth." H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 Moment by moment I'm kept in his love; 
 Moment by moment I've life from above; 
 Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine. 
 Moment by moment, Lord, I am thine. 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 So many Christians want to walk by sight; they 
 want to see how a thing is going to come out. 
 Jacob walked by sight. He never could have gone 
 through the temptations and trials that his son 
 Joseph did. Joseph had more faith: he could walk 
 in the dark. Lot was a weak character, and should 
 have stayed with Abraham. A good many men, as 
 long as they are bolstered up by some godly person, 
 get along very well; but they can't stand alone. 
 Have faith in God to guide you, even though you 
 can't see. D. L. Moody. 
 
 132 
 
w^^^ 
 
 DAY 
 
 m 
 
 It is not strange when you have the Bible deal- 
 ing with the physical world, and when physical science 
 is dealing with the same facts, that you should have 
 a double interpretation of the same phenomena. 
 The double interpretation makes it all the stronger; 
 we see that every day. I go early in the morning 
 and make a very informal call upon a friend with 
 whom I am very intimate. I walk in without knock- 
 ing, it may be, and I say to the first one I meet, " Is 
 So-and-so at home?" I say to myself, "Yes, he 
 must be here; his hat and cane are here, and there 
 is a favorite book he has left open; there are indica- 
 tions all around of his having been here within a 
 short time." And, answering my question himself, 
 he says, " Yes; I will be down in a minute." I have 
 performed a rapid and unconscious induction, and 
 then received the direct information from him. I go 
 around this world and I investigate it; I interpret it 
 and say, "Is God here?" And I perform an induc- 
 tion, which I call an argument, for the existence of 
 God; and while I am going through that process of 
 reasoning I get a message from God himself. He 
 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens 
 and the earth." Is there any trouble about my in- 
 ference reached one way and God's information 
 given me in another way? No; the Christian creed 
 is strengthened by the double testimony of science 
 and revelation. 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 No single fact in science has ever discredited a 
 fact in religion. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 133 
 
DAY 
 IV 
 
 The authenticity of the Scriptures depends upon 
 the truth of the facts contained in them, and not upon 
 men's interpretation of those facts. Facts alone 
 can authenticate anything. Leave the settlement 
 to interpretation, and you have as many interpreta- 
 tions as you have interpreters. If a document is 
 authentic its authenticity must be established by 
 questions of fact, and when this is done no interpre- 
 tation can set it aside. All the philosophies of man 
 must fall when they come in contact with a single 
 fact. The fall of an apple and the discovery of 
 gravitation destroyed the philosophy that man had 
 been building for six thousand years. 
 
 Suppose that I should attempt to do with the 
 Constitution of the United States what the opposers 
 of Christianity for eighteen hundred years have been 
 trying to do with the Bible. They offer their own 
 interpretations as proof that God is not the author 
 of the Bible. I might offer my interpretation to prove 
 that the fathers never made the Constitution. 
 
 If the Bible is ever authenticated, it must be done 
 in the same way that any other document is authen- 
 ticated—by a study of its facts. In no other way 
 could a revelation be given than by supernatural 
 acts attesting a divine mission, and then by monu- 
 mental testimony, as " seals," putting these evidences 
 in an imperishable form to transmit to future gen- 
 erations. The acts which Moses and Christ performed 
 were the highest evidences that God could give that 
 he had sent them. The national monuments are as 
 good evidence to us as the acts were to those 
 who saw them. Testimony, accompanied by proper 
 " seals " and attestations, can lose none of its value 
 by time. I. D. Driver. 
 
 134 
 
DAY 
 
 V 
 
 A Bible that man can comprehend, or anybody 
 else can comprehend, is not very much of a Bible. 
 Infinite things cannot be grasped by the human mind. 
 The Bible opens with three great mysteries: the 
 mystery of time, the mystery of being, and the 
 mystery of creation. We cannot understand them; 
 they are past our finding out. 
 
 Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 The great canon of interpretation, that spiritual 
 things are spiritually discerned, cannot be too 
 strongly insisted on. One cannot interpret Scrip- 
 ture by mere intellect any more than a mathemati- 
 cian can interpret the oratorio, " The Creation," by 
 his multiplication table, or a shopkeeper can com- 
 prehend " Paradise Lost " with his yardstick. Only 
 the Spirit that inspired the Word of God can give 
 us the key to that Word. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 Did you ever notice the inspiration that is found 
 in what is not said in the Bible? Swedenborg openly 
 declares what the Bible leaves in mystery. Suppose 
 that the Bible had pronounced on the age when we 
 become morally responsible. Suppose the Bible had 
 pronounced on science, and so diverted man's atten- 
 tion from spiritual things. We do not know what 
 Paul's thorn in the flesh was; consequently we each 
 think that our particular infirmity or trouble may 
 be like Paul's. Nothing is said as to the limits of 
 propriety in the matter of worldly amusements. 
 Nothing is said of the personal features of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. These and many other matters are 
 passed over in silence, and the wisdom of that si- 
 lence is as great as the wisdom of speech. 
 
 A. T. PlERSON. 
 
 135 
 
DAY 
 VI 
 
 We find in Scripture the word " true " used with 
 regard to a number of objects: the true bread, the 
 true wine, the true manna, the true tabernacle. 
 What is this intended to teach us? God could have 
 made man to need no sleep, to need no food, as 
 we have reason to suppose the angels were made; 
 but had this been the case we should have known 
 nothing of rest, as we now know it, nor could we 
 have learned the spiritual truths revealed to us 
 through the illustration of food and nourishment. 
 So that the bread we eat is not true bread; but 
 Christ is the true bread, of which it is merely a type. 
 The earthly relationship of parent and child is only 
 a type and dim reflection of the preexisting relation- 
 ship in the divine mind; and all that the bridegroom 
 and bride bring before us of trust and of love are 
 only intended to teach us the true relationship of 
 the church to Christ, and of Christ to his church. 
 We only rightly knov/ him v/hen we realize that to 
 please God is to give God pleasure, as earthly pa- 
 rents receive pleasure when their children please 
 them. J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 There are seven marvelous truths contained in 
 John iii. 16: 1. The greatest possible gift: God gave 
 his Son; 2. For the greatest possible number: ''the 
 world;" 3. On the easiest possible terms: "whoso- 
 ever believeth;" 4. For the most blessed deliverance 
 from eternal perdition: " shall never perish;" 5. The 
 greatest blessing: "everlasting life;" 6. On the 
 highest possible security: on the witness of Christ 
 himself; 7. From the highest possible motive, God's 
 love: "God so loved the v/orld." 
 
 Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 136 
 
W^^^ ""y^ 
 
 This little world was the altar of the universe on 
 which lay the almighty Sacrifice. The incarnation 
 was but the scaffolding for the atonement. ^ It is the 
 cross that shows us the love of God at white heat. 
 
 Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 God's Word teaches us two things about the cross 
 of Christ: Christ died /or sin and for me. But what 
 gave his death such power to atone was the spirit 
 in which he died. He died unto sin. Sin had 
 tempted him in Gethsemane to say, " I cannot die." 
 But, God be praised, he died unto sin, and in dying 
 he conquered. He gave up his life rather than 
 yield to sin. I cannot die/c>r sin like Christ, but I 
 can and must die to sin like Christ. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 We are not pardoned on the ground of any com- 
 promise. God has not agreed to let us off for fifty 
 cents on a dollar; he has not allowed us to go into 
 bankruptcy and take a poor debtor's oath. We are 
 forgiven on the ground of justice. ''Justification " is 
 Paul's word. God is just to you because in Christ 
 you have died. So in Romans you read, " He that 
 is dead is free from sin; " Revised Version, " He that 
 hath died is justified from sin." A man was drafted 
 in the war, and his substitute went to the field of 
 battle and died. When the man was drafted again 
 he pleaded that he was dead, and was justified by 
 the courts. That point has been decided in court 
 three times: once in America, once in France, and 
 once in Germany. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 137 
 
DAY 
 
 vm 
 
 It were easier to disprove .the existence of George 
 Washington or Napoleon Bonaparte than that of 
 Jesus Christ, and to blot out Bunker Hill or Water- 
 loo than Calvary. Did George Washington live, and 
 do the 22d of February and the 4th of July prove 
 it? How about that other anniversary, dear to 
 England and to America, and destined to be the 
 greatest day in all the earth, observed by gifts from 
 parents to children to commemorate God's gift to 
 man? Why is that observed at all? Because of 
 Christ. Who is he? Suppose that he were just 
 now to come— as come he will, we know not when 
 —and, making himself evident to us, should say, 
 "Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" 
 I would have to say, " Blessed Master, some say that 
 thou art a myth," unless my tongue should cleave 
 to the roof of my mouth so that I could not utter the 
 word. " Some say that thou art a fancy portrait, 
 and that a picture has turned the world on its 
 hinges." And then, should he go on to say, " Who 
 say ye that I am? " oh, now, on my bended knee and 
 with streaming tears, I would cry, "Thou art the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God." For he has out- 
 lived himself, outlived death and the grave. 
 
 Cyrus D. Foss. 
 
 Christ's character was prefigured by the national 
 tabernacle. The Holy Ghost gave the tabernacle 
 three names: the tent of meeting, the tent of wit- 
 ness, and the dwelling-place of God. Christ was 
 the meeting-place for God and man, a witness for 
 the Father, and there God dwelt. 
 
 M. E. Baldwin. 
 
 138 
 
^^^^ 
 
 DAY 
 IX 
 
 In the first Adam I died to God; I died in sin. 
 When I was born I had the life of the fallen Adam. 
 The moment I am born again by believing in Jesus 
 I become united to Christ, the second Adam, and am 
 made partaker of the life of Christ— that life which 
 died unto sin and rose again. Therefore God tells 
 us, "Reckon yourselves indeed dead unto sin, and 
 alive unto God in Christ Jesus." As in the first 
 Adam you died in sin and unto God, so in the second 
 Adam you died in Christ and unto sin. Many Chris- 
 tians do not understand that they are dead to sin; 
 therefore Paul says, " How shall we, that are dead to 
 sin, live any longer therein ? Know ye not, that so 
 many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were 
 baptized into his death ? " 
 
 You must get hold of your union to Christ; believe 
 in the new nature within you, that spiritual life which 
 you have from Christ, a life that has died and has 
 been raised again. Every man acts according to 
 the idea he has of his state. A king acts like a 
 king if he is conscious of his kingship. So I cannot 
 live the life of a true believer unless I am conscious 
 every day that I am dead in Christ. He died unto 
 sin: I am united with him, and he lives in me, and I 
 am dead to sin. Adam lives in a natural man the 
 death-life, a life under the power of sin, a life of 
 death to God. Christ, the second Adam, has come 
 to me with a new life, and I now live in his life, the 
 death-life of Christ. Andrew Murray. 
 
 The difference between the regenerate and the 
 unregenerate man is that the unregenerate man 
 lives in sin, and he loves it; but the regenerate man 
 lapses into sin, and he loathes it. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 139 
 
DAY 
 X 
 
 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper.— Prov. xxviii. 13. 
 
 Sins unconfessed and not set straight are hindering 
 a mighty work of God in many a man and woman to- 
 day. David tried not confessing his sins to God, and 
 we know the misery he experienced. He says in the 
 Thirty-second Psalm, ''When I kept silence, my 
 bones waxed old through my roaring all the day 
 long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon 
 me." At last he came to his senses; he confessed 
 his transgressions, and the Lord forgave the iniquity 
 of his sin. Then God wrought mightily in David, 
 and the Thirty-second Psalm and the Fifty-first 
 Psalm, and many another psalm that has comforted 
 and edified the children of God for nearly three 
 thousand years, are the result. 
 
 R. A. TORREY. 
 
 Nine tenths of our prayers never go higher than 
 the room they are uttered in. Why? Something 
 is concealed. If I regard iniquity in my heart God 
 will not hear, much less answer; and if our prayers 
 are not answered let us not think the trouble is on 
 God's side, for it is on ours. Isaiah lix. is quoted 
 many times by men who stop in the wrong place. 
 " Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it 
 cannot save: but your iniquities have separated be- 
 tween you and your God, and your sins have hid his 
 face from you, that he will not hear." As long as 
 you have a bullet in your body you will never have 
 a perfectly healthy body; and as long as you have a 
 sin in your soul you will not have a healthy soul. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 140 
 
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.— Ps. cvii. 2. 
 
 Run up the colors to the masthead. We must 
 confess Christ. Some of us mean well, but a false 
 discretion overtakes us. We are not unlike that 
 soldier who w^as always discovered, in the shock of 
 battle, betaking himself, without orders, to safe 
 places. The captain at last accused him of having 
 a cowardly heart. "Oh," said the soldier, "my 
 heart is as brave as can be, but whenever danger 
 comes I have a cowardly pair of legs that run off 
 with my brave heart." Many of us are like that. 
 Our convictions are right when confession is not 
 needed, but in the shock of battle we fail. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 I heard of a young man who went into the army. 
 The first night in the barracks, with about fifteen 
 men plajdng cards and gambling around him, he 
 fell on his knees and prayed, and they began to 
 curse and to throw boots at him. So it went on the 
 next night and the next, and finally the young man 
 told the chaplain what had taken place, and asked 
 him what he should do. " Well," the chaplain said, 
 " those soldiers have just as much right in the bar- 
 racks as you have. It makes them angry to have 
 you pray, and the Lord will hear you just as well in 
 bed." Som.e weeks after that the chaplain met the 
 young man and asked, " By the way, did you take 
 my advice?" "I did for two or three nights; but 
 I felt like a whipped hound, and the third night I 
 knelt down and prayed." "Well," said the chaplain, 
 " how did that work ? " The young soldier answered, 
 "We have a prayer-meeting there now every night; 
 three have been converted, and we are praying for 
 the rest." D. L. Moody. 
 
 141 
 
DAY 
 
 xn 
 
 ^TS^^^^B^^i^'^*^ 
 
 Thomas said before Christ's death, "Let us go 
 and die with him;" and Peter said, "Lord, I am 
 ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death." 
 But the disciples all failed, and our Lord took a man, 
 one of the off scouring of the earth, who hung beside 
 him on Calvary, and through him shows us what it 
 is to die with him. He shows us, first of all, the 
 state of a heart prepared to die with Christ— a 
 humble, whole-hearted confession of guilt. Here is 
 one reason why the church enters so little into the 
 death of Christ; men do not wish to believe that the 
 curse of God is upon everything in them that has 
 not died with Christ. The church suffers to-day 
 from trusting in intellect and culture. Men rob the 
 intellect of its crucifixion mark. Christ said to 
 Paul, " Go, preach the gospel of the cross, but not 
 with wisdom of words." The intellect, the affections, 
 everything, must go into the grave with Christ. 
 God will raise them from the dead again, sanctified 
 and made alive unto God. 
 
 Then the penitent thief had faith in the almighty 
 power of Christ; there is not a faith in the Bible like 
 that. This cursed malefactor, hanging on the cross 
 beside Jesus, dares to say, " I am dying under the 
 just curse of my sins, but I believe that thou canst 
 take me into thy heart. Remember me when thou 
 comest into thy kingdom." Brother, you and I need 
 a much deeper faith in the power of Christ to take 
 us into his arms and carry us through this death-life. 
 Would you, now that Christ is on the throne, be 
 afraid of doing what the malefactor did when Christ 
 was upon the cross— to trust yourself to him to 
 live as one dead with him? 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 142 
 
^^^^« 
 
 DAY 
 
 xni 
 
 Have you ever noticed that people who flatter 
 themselves that it is not foolish to live a kind of 
 half-and-half life, sanctified so far as belonging to 
 God is concerned, but living in the most perilous 
 surroundings and dangerous habits, always think 
 that they can escape the danger of corruption and 
 influence others? Lot dwelt in Sodom mth the 
 expectation that he could affect the people around 
 him for good. But be assured that the world will 
 drag you down to their level; you will never bring 
 them up to your level until you have taught them 
 boldly to know Christ and to see the depravity of 
 their nature and their ways. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 One backslider will do more harm than twenty 
 Christian men can do good. 
 
 W. E. Blackstone. 
 
 Many Christians believe in Christ without belong- 
 ing to him; they give Christ their faith, and with- 
 hold from him their fealty; they own him, but shrink 
 from being owned by him. We plead for a service 
 of Christ which is entire, undivided, and wanting 
 nothing. Therefore we urge upon Christians the 
 duty of separation: separation from associations 
 that are secret, that they may live an open life of 
 devotion to Christ; separation from societies that 
 assess a tax on time which is already mortgaged for 
 its full value to the Lord; separation from bonds 
 that hold men together by compacts and oaths, 
 when they aught to be free to yield with their full 
 force to the attractions of Christ— separation in 
 order to concentration. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 143 
 
DAY 
 
 xrv 
 
 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from 
 iniquity.— 2 Tim ii, 19. 
 
 Forsake dangerous associations. Health is not 
 contagious, but sickness is. We quarantine yellow 
 fever to keep it out of the country, but we do not 
 bring in health or quarantine it. Sin is catching; 
 holiness is not. Be very careful to whom you give 
 the key of your heart. Look out! This association, 
 with us imitative creatures, has a tremendous influ- 
 ence on a man's or a woman's Christian character. 
 Lot bought real estate down near Sodom; pitched 
 his tent over against Sodom; then he moved into 
 Sodom; and pretty soon Sodom moved into him. 
 The angel put a hand on his shoulder and said, " Es- 
 cape for thy life, lest thou be consumed." That is 
 the only way for any one to get out of dangerous 
 associations in business, in politics, or anything else. 
 Christians, the moment you find that you are in any 
 associations that harm and poison your piety, escape 
 out of that place as quickly as Lot hastened out of 
 Sodom, for there is no safety in remaining there. 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 Christians call the Bible the only rule of faith and 
 practice; but is it the only rule of practice? Do 
 we take this Bible when any question of doubtful 
 propriety comes up, and ask ourselves what the 
 Bible says on that subject? Do we make the Bible 
 the standard of our life? Do we take that Bible 
 when difficulties arise, and say, "How does Paul's 
 teaching or Jesus Christ's teaching bear upon this? " 
 Nay; we are more apt to be governed by what peo- 
 ple will say, by what they all do, and by what the 
 law allows. Francis L. Patton. 
 
 144 
 
w^^^ 
 
 DAY 
 XV 
 
 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker.— Isa. xlv. 9. 
 
 We may strive with our Maker in two ways: we 
 may say to him, "What makest thou?" or we may 
 say, " He hath no hands." We may quarrel with 
 God as to the direction in which he is making us, 
 and we may quarrel with God as to the method 
 which he adopts. 
 
 What makest thou ? " If thou wouldst make me 
 a man of business I shouldn't mind, if I am success- 
 ful ; but I do not wish to be only a clerk. Why didst 
 thou make me this way? " "If thou hadst only made 
 me a Moody I should thank thee; but thou hast made 
 me a working-man, to earn my bread by the sweat 
 of my brow; I don't like this." What makest thou? 
 " I am a young girl, and want to go to the zenanas 
 in India; but I have a widowed mother, and sisters 
 and brothers, and I must work for them. Make me 
 something else, God; I am tired of this. I will 
 be good and obedient and loving and sweet if thou 
 wilt let me have my way; but why didst thou make 
 me this way? I don't like it." That is striving 
 with your Maker. 
 
 Another man thinks that God is doing nothing. 
 He says, "He hath no hands." He thinks that he 
 could do better for himself; as much as to say, " My 
 God, thou dost not understand what thou art doing; 
 thou hast no hands; thou dost not know how to deal 
 with souls. Not this way; put me there, and I shall 
 do better." That is the way in which people, who 
 would not put their thoughts into those words, are 
 nevertheless striving with their Maker. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 145 
 
DAY 
 XVI 
 
 We do not teach sinlessness; for when a man is 
 living up to his loftiest ideal there will always be a 
 chasm between God's ideal and man's loftiest living. 
 The man who boasts about his sinlessness is the man 
 who has not seen the perfect standard of God, and 
 he usually calls infirmities what God calls sins. 
 We do not teach sinlessness, but we do teach that 
 God is able so to possess a soul that it shall not be 
 constantly conscious of failure; and if there is any 
 failure in your life it is because you have not ap- 
 prehended God's deliverance. And why? Because 
 there is some one thing in your life— there may be 
 more than one— which has come between God and 
 your soul and which has shut off God's helpful grace. 
 You will never be happy and able to sing again until 
 you are willing to renounce that thing and let God 
 draw you closer to himself. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 We often see a thing and yet do not possess it. 
 You often see beautiful fruit displayed behind a 
 plate-glass window or in some shop, and the hungry 
 little boys look and long for it, but they cannot reach 
 it. If you were to tell one of them who has never 
 seen glass to take some, he might attempt it; but 
 he finds something invisible between him and that 
 fruit. Just so many Christians can see that God's 
 gifts are beautiful, but they cannot take, because 
 the self-life comes in between, even though they 
 cannot see it. What glorious blessings we should 
 have if we were only willing to give up the self-life 
 and take what God has prepared for us— not only 
 righteousness, not only peace, but the joy of the 
 Holy Ghost! Andrew Murray. 
 
 146 
 
DAY 
 
 xvn 
 
 In the fable of the magic skin it gave the wearer 
 power to get anything he wanted; but every time 
 he gratified his wishes the skin shrank and com- 
 pressed him into smaller dimensions until, by and 
 by, with the last wish life itself was crushed out. 
 The magic skin is selfishness. It is a great thing to 
 learn to say no to one's self instead of indulging 
 every whim and wish, even though there be nothing 
 sinful in it. Moses renounced the pleasures and 
 treasures of Egypt for the sake of a higher recom- 
 pense of reward. There was no necessary wrong in 
 his inheriting the royal treasures and enjoying the 
 pleasures of Egypt, so far as they were not in them- 
 selves sinful; but Moses had a high vocation, and 
 these would have been hindrances; so he renounced 
 them. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 All that there has been and ever will be of sin 
 and of darkness and of wretchedness and of misery 
 will be nothing but the reign of self, the curse of 
 self, separating man and turning him away from his 
 God. If we are to understand fully what Christ is 
 to do for us, and are to become partakers of a full 
 salvation, we must learn to know and to hate and 
 to give up entirely this cursed self. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 You can't jump away from your shadow, but if you 
 turn to the sun your shadow is behind you, and if you 
 stand under the sun your shadow is beneath you. 
 What we should try to do is to live under the meri- 
 dian Sun, with our shadow, self, under our feet. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 147 
 
Under the Levitical law if a man came in contact 
 with death he could only be cleansed from that 
 contact by sacrifice. There is, perhaps, a danger in 
 some quarters at the present day of the thought 
 being accepted that certain things are right if we 
 do not feel them to be wrong— that certain things 
 are right if we are, so to speak, unavoidably thrown 
 in contact with them. We must ever bear in mind 
 that we have in God's will, as revealed in the Scrip- 
 tures, an absolute standard of right and wTong; and 
 no ignorance on our part, or want of opportunity 
 on our part, can make the wrong to be right. If a 
 person through ignorance does that which is contrary 
 to God's revealed will, it may not at the time hinder 
 communion; but as soon as it is revealed to him that 
 the thing done is contrary to God's will it must be con- 
 fessed, not as a misfortune, but as a sin, and the 
 atoning blood must be upon it before communion 
 can be fully and satisfactorily reestablished. 
 
 J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 The glory of the Lord cannot stay in the house 
 of man, because of sin. God wants a consecrated 
 temple, a consecrated people. God is ready to con- 
 secrate you, but it will cost you something. Are 
 you ready for any sacrifice? 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 When a man finds out that he can't empty his own 
 heart, what he wants to do is just to let the water in 
 from above. Get under the fountain and stay there, 
 and there will be no trouble about your being full to 
 overflowing. D. L. Moody. 
 
 148 
 
^^^^ 
 
 DAY 
 XDC 
 
 To give a perfect rule of life humanity needs many 
 things besides laws; example, experience, mistakes, 
 departures— all are needed. To safely navigate the 
 seas the compass, quadrant, and chronometer are 
 not sufficient. By the aid of these the mariner 
 knows which way to go and where he is; but with- 
 out the discoveries, mistakes, and disasters of those 
 who have gone before him he is in constant danger. 
 These mistakes and disasters are not put down on 
 his chart for him to imitate and follow, but to show 
 him where there is danger that he may avoid it; and 
 every such place marked on his chart has been the 
 scene of greater or less disaster, and its location on 
 the chart is the highest evidence of honesty and 
 wisdom. Viewed from this standpoint, the sins and 
 mistakes of the patriarchs, related by inspiration, 
 show a faithful record and point out to us the dan- 
 ger by showing the disastrous results and telling of 
 the condemnation of God; yet all writers against 
 Christianity have used these departures to disprove 
 the inspiration of the Bible. As well might they use 
 the past accidents and disasters on the seas against 
 the art of navigation. They first ignore the Bible, 
 then condemn Noah, David, and Solomon by the 
 Bible. I. D. Driver. 
 
 The Bible is the only book which shows us what 
 w^e are— not only our needs, but our possibilities. 
 Too many men are content to live in the valley or 
 to roam about among the foot-hills, who might be 
 climbing upon the peaks of the higher Christian ex- 
 perience. John R. Mott. 
 
 149 
 
DAY 
 XX 
 
 c^T^^^i^^^^^ 
 
 Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus 
 Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift 
 of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your 
 children.— Acts ii. 38, 39. 
 
 What promise is here referred to? Ah, it refers 
 to this glad news, the promise of the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost, which is for every child of God in every 
 age of the Christian church. What a wondrous 
 truth, that there isn't a man or a woman or a child 
 who has a living, saving faith in Jesus Christ that 
 cannot have the baptism with the Spirit of God! 
 But with the glorious privilege there is the deep 
 responsibility. If I am not willing to pay the price 
 and claim the blessing I am responsible before God 
 for the work I might have done and did not do. I 
 tremble for myself, and for my brethren in the 
 ministry, and my brethren in Christian work in the 
 larger ministry— not because they are preaching 
 error; but because they are preaching the truth, 
 but not preaching it in the power of the Holy Ghost. 
 The most deadening thing on earth is the truth 
 preached in the power of the flesh. "The letter 
 killeth; it is the Spirit that giveth life." 
 
 R. A. TORREY. 
 
 We are told that John and Peter were filled in the 
 second chapter, and again in the fourth. Now, they 
 had either lost some of their power or had greater 
 capacity. If Peter and John needed to be filled 
 again so soon after Pentecost, don't you think you 
 and I need to be filled again? 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 150 
 
w^^^ 
 
 DAY 
 XXI 
 
 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto 
 your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give 
 the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?— Luke xi. 13. 
 
 There is no article "the" in that passage; the 
 word is partitive, not personal; it is ''Holy Spirit." 
 There is no doubt that none of us have realized the 
 fullness of the possibilities that might be expected 
 concerning the gift or powers or qualities of this 
 " Holy Ghost," and that the holiest of us ^^i.\\ always 
 be conscious of needing more. It is one thing for 
 me to ask God to give me more of the Spirit in my 
 own personal enjo3Tnent; it is another thing to ask 
 God to give his own perfect gift again from heaven 
 as though he never had bestowed it. It is one thing 
 to recognize that I have failed to take and to use 
 what my Father has bestowed; it is another thing 
 to charge my Father with not having bestowed what 
 he says he has given. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 There is a difference between gifts and graces. 
 The graces of the Spirit are humility and love, like 
 the humility and love of Christ, and are to make a 
 man free from self; the gift of the Spirit is to fit a 
 man for work. We see this illustrated among the 
 Corinthians. In the twelfth and fourteenth chapters 
 we read that the gifts of prophecy and of working 
 miracles were in great power among them; but the 
 graces of the Spirit were noticeably absent. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 151 
 
DAY 
 XXII 
 
 <^Vt^^^^^^^ 
 
 We should abandon the idea that we are to use 
 the Holy Ghost, and accept the thought that the 
 Holy Ghost is to use us. There is a wide distinction 
 between those two conceptions. I was in the Chi- 
 cago World's Fair, and was attracted to a man 
 dressed up in a very gaudy Oriental costume, who 
 was turning with all his might a crank which was 
 attached to a pump from which a great stream of 
 water was pouring out. I said, " That man is work- 
 ing hard and producing splendid results." I came 
 near, and, to my astonishment, found that the man, 
 which was really only wooden, was not turning the 
 crank, but the crank was turning him, and, instead 
 of his making that stream of water go, it was mak- 
 ing him go. Many people want the secret of power. 
 They hear about Peter preaching that wonderful 
 sermon, and of course they would give anything if 
 they had the ability to preach one sermon and con- 
 vert three thousand people. They say to Peter, 
 "How did you get hold of the power?" ''I didn't 
 get hold of the pov/er at all," he would say; "the 
 power got hold of me." " We have preached the 
 gospel unto you with"— no, not "with"; if it had 
 been translated correctly we should learn that, in- 
 stead of Peter using the Spirit, the Spirit used him. 
 "We have preached the gospel unto you in the 
 power of the Holy Ghost." As a wheel dips itself 
 into the river and makes all the cotton factories 
 whirl, so Peter dipped into the Spirit and was swept 
 by the current. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 152 
 
■ The very power that raised Jesus from the dead, not- 
 withstanding the host of de\ils that opposed him, 
 and set him at the right hand of God is waiting to lift 
 each one of us from the grave of sin and lust, above 
 the heads of the devils that oppose us, and to set us in 
 heavenly places in Christ. If man will only live in his 
 Head, in Christ, the devil is always under his feet ; but 
 the mistake with so many of us is that we do not 
 maintain our heavenly life, but by getting out of 
 fellowship with Jesus we, as it were, get into the 
 devil's power again. If you and I would always live 
 in him we would always live above. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 Our union with Christ is a real union. Every- 
 thing that concerns me Christ is concerned in, and 
 everything that concerns Christ I am concerned in. 
 The Bible tells us from beginning to end that our 
 salvation is not our own salvation merely, but that 
 Jesus Christ may be glorified. Our pardon shows 
 his grace; our sanctification shows his holiness; our 
 resurrection shows his power; and our being glorified 
 is to reflect his glory. It all concerns him, and be- 
 cause it concerns him it ought to concern us; and 
 we ought to love— oh, how we ought to love!— his 
 glorious appearing. 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 Count nothing small. The smallest thing may be 
 a link in the golden chain which binds a man to the 
 divine Master himself. 
 
 A. F. SCHAUFFLER. 
 
 153 
 
DAY 
 
 XXIV 
 
 Knowing this, that the trying of yom- faith worketh patience. 
 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect 
 and entire, wanting nothing. — James i. 3, 4. 
 
 James actually declares that if a man has perfect 
 patience he has a perfect character. I wish I had 
 a voice that could ring over our run-mad country 
 in this end of the nineteenth century, when men are 
 tumbling over one another, rushing after nothing and 
 finding it. I would like to proclaim this lesson : who- 
 ever has perfect patience has a perfect character. 
 
 John A. Broadus. 
 
 A just man is a man who in society is most exact 
 in all the details of duty; honorable in his dealings; 
 he pays all his debts ; he won't injure any one. Joseph 
 of Arimathea was also a " good man "; that is to say, 
 a kind man, a man of generous disposition. These 
 are the two characteristics of the natural man, in this 
 case at least; it is these which make a man liked by 
 his fellow-men. Joseph was all this and yet not a 
 Christian. A man in his natural state may be all 
 that Joseph was and yet be outside of the pale of 
 salvation. Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 A friend went one morning to Sir Robert Peel's 
 house and found him with a great bundle of letters 
 lying before him, bowed over it in prayer. The 
 friend retired, and came back in a short time and 
 said, "I beg your pardon for intruding upon your 
 private devotions." Sir Robert said, "No; those 
 were my public devotions. I was just giving the 
 affairs of state into the hands of God, for I could 
 not manage them." Try trusting the living God 
 with your letter-bag or your housekeeping. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 154 
 
w^^^ 
 
 DAY 
 XXV 
 
 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, 
 moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.— 
 Heb. xi. 7. 
 
 The fear of God makes a hero; the fear of man 
 makes a coward. Fear to do wrong makes the hero; 
 fear to do right makes the coward. Noah was 
 warned of things not seen as yet, and he believed 
 God's warning. Such a thing as a flood the world 
 had never known. It was out of the range of his 
 experience ; there were scores of arguments against 
 it; but God's word with Noah was stronger than all 
 arguments. The need of this day is a healthy fear: 
 faith in Sinai with its thundering of judgment as 
 strong as faith in Calvary with its whisperings of 
 love; a belief in the words of Christ about the worm 
 that dieth not as strong as a belief in the mansions 
 which he is preparing for his people. 
 
 The fear of Noah moved him forward; the fear of 
 the coward moves him backward. Wellington once 
 commissioned two soldiers to go on a dangerous er- 
 rand. As they galloped along, one looked at the 
 other and said, " You are scared." " Yes," replied 
 his comrade; " and if you were scared as badly as I 
 am you would run." The brave man turned his horse, 
 and, galloping back to the general's tent, said, " Sir, 
 you have sent with me a coward. I left him trembling 
 like a leaf." ^' Well," said Wellington, " unless you 
 return pretty soon his mission will be performed." 
 And, sure enough, as the brave man galloped back 
 he met the coward returning, with the dangerous 
 work already done. It is manly to fear to do wrong; 
 it may not be unmanly to tremble in the presence 
 of danger while we stand, in spite of our trembling, 
 at the post of duty. A. C. Dixon. 
 
 155 
 
DAY 
 XXVI 
 
 ^^Tti^^!^^^'^^ 
 
 Some people seem to think that Jerusalem was 
 built by men who desired a city and said, " We will 
 not build on a hill, because then it will be necessary 
 to carry the stone and timber up. We will get a 
 smooth, level country down in the valley, and there 
 build a beautiful city, and we mil have a temple in 
 the midst of it, and then when it is done we will get 
 together and pray, ' Lord, we have built a city; 
 we have built it in a plain, because it was easier; 
 now, Lord, please lift up the ground and make a 
 hill of it; " So the Lord did it. Then they prayed, 
 " Now, Lord, please pile the mountains around us for 
 our defense." So the Lord did that also. 
 
 What are the facts? These people wanted a city, 
 and they said, "It is best that this city should be 
 on a hill. We will build where God has laid the 
 foundation. It will be hard to get the stone up, 
 hard to get the timber up; but we will do it." It 
 makes all the difference in the world whether you 
 lay your plans and ask God to prosper them, or give 
 your life to God, and let him make the plans, and 
 then carry out his own plans. I fear that quite a 
 proportion of the prayers of good people is really, 
 " Lord, my will be done." Did you pray this morn- 
 ing that God would bless you in something that you 
 had made up your mind to do ? You ought to have 
 said, " Here, Lord, lies before me this strange, new 
 day; I never saw it — nobody ever saw it. Here am 
 I; what wilt thou have me to do?" God will never 
 move the mountains around a selfish man ; you must 
 put your house where God put the mountains before 
 he put you into the world; put your life where God 
 has put the plan and purpose of your life. 
 
 Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 156 
 
^#>^^ 
 
 DAY 
 
 xxvn 
 
 Christ died that he might make us a "peculiar 
 people." A great many Christians are afraid that 
 they will be peculiar. A few weeks before Enoch 
 was translated his acquaintances would probably 
 have said he was a little peculiar; they would have 
 told you that when they had a progressive-euchre 
 party and the whole country-side was invited, you 
 wouldn't find Enoch or one of his family there. He 
 was very peculiar, very. We are not told he was a 
 warrior or a great scientist or a great scholar. In 
 fact, we are not told he was anything that the world 
 would call great, but he walked with God three hun- 
 dred and sixty-five years, and he is the brightest 
 star that shone in that dispensation. If he could 
 walk with God, cannot you and I? As old Dr. Bonar 
 has said, " He took a long walk one day, and has not 
 come back yet. The Lord liked his company so well 
 that he said, ' Enoch, come up higher.' " We shall 
 find him up there som.e day. 
 
 I suppose that if you had asked the men in Eli- 
 jah's time what kind of a man he was, they would 
 have said, *' He is very peculiar." The king would 
 say, "I hate him." Jezebel didn't like him; the 
 v/hole royal court didn't like him, and a great many 
 of the nominal Christians didn't like him; he was 
 too radical. I am glad the Lord had seven thou- 
 sand that had not bowed the knee to Baal; but I 
 would rather have Elijah's little finger than the 
 whole seven thousand. I wouldn't give much for 
 seven thousand Christians in hiding. They will just 
 barely get into heaven; they won't have any crown. 
 See that " no man take thy crown." Be willing to 
 be one of Christ's peculiar people, no matter what 
 men may say of you. D. L. Moody. 
 
 157 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvm 
 
 Thou, Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up 
 of mine head.— Ps. iii. 3. 
 
 I like that last expression— "Lifter up of my 
 head." There is your child, my good mother, and 
 your child has been bad, and you have chastised it. 
 You have put the poor little bundle of wretched- 
 ness and crossness into a corner, and there it is 
 standing soiling all its face with hot, scalding tears. 
 Then your heart relents; the extreme of misery tells 
 upon you, for you are its mother. And you come 
 toward the little thing, and it creeps into the corner 
 and hangs its head. And what do you do? In- 
 stead of chastising it any more, you come quite 
 close, and with one hand on the little one's shoulder, 
 you put the other hand below its chin, and literally 
 you lift up the little face into the light of your own, 
 and stoop down and kiss it. Did you ever think that 
 that is what God wants to do with the poor weary 
 sinner who has gone back and done shamefully? 
 When fears are on every side, and awful voices in 
 your heart speak ominously of eternal doom, God 
 comes, and with his own gracious hand lifts up your 
 head. He anoints and cheers your soiled face; he 
 lifts up your head, and lets the light of his own 
 reconciled countenance beam down upon you. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 If we were to believe in the survival of the fittest 
 there would not be much chance for some of us. 
 But the glory of the gospel is this, that God comes 
 to the unfit, to the marred and spoiled, to those who 
 have thwarted and resisted him, and that he is pre- 
 pared to make them over again; and if you will let 
 him he will make you too. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 158 
 
DAY 
 XXIX 
 
 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation 
 of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before 
 him in love.— Eph. i. 4. 
 
 Christians, claim your full privileges. In tempo- 
 ral things men are beginning to do this. Suppose 
 that the son and heir of some wealthy deceased man 
 were told by certain trustees that he was left with 
 only three or four hundred dollars a year, and that 
 the rest was left in their hands in trust; he would 
 go along on that three or four hundred dollars only 
 so long as he was obliged to. Some one tells him 
 that the whole fortune is left to him, and he goes 
 to some la\vyer's office and asks to see his father's 
 will. As he reads the will the whole truth comes 
 out, and he says, " I have been living on three hun- 
 dred dollars a year when I have a hundred thousand. 
 I am going to come into possession of what I have, 
 and live proportionately to my wealth." Thousands 
 of us are yet living on two or three hundred dollars 
 that might live on the exceeding riches of God's 
 glory. M. E. Baldwin. 
 
 The beautiful trees and green grass and the 
 bright sun God created that they might show forth 
 his beauty and wisdom and glory. When that tree, 
 one hundred years old, was planted, God did not 
 give it a stock of life in which it could carry on 
 its existence. Nay, verily. God clothes the lilies 
 every year afresh with their beauty; every year he 
 clothes the tree with its foliage and its fruit; every 
 day and every hour it is God who maintains the life 
 of all nature. God created us that we might be the 
 empty vessels in which he could work out his beauty, 
 his will, his love, and the likeness of his blessed 
 Son. Andrew Murray. 
 
 159 
 
DAY 
 XXX 
 
 The accidental miracles of our Lord are among 
 the most remarkable— those that, as it were, he 
 spilled over by the way. While he was on his way 
 to do one miracle he dropped another, almost as if 
 he didn't intend it. He was going to heal the 
 daughter of Jairus when the woman with an issue 
 of blood reached out her hand, touched the hem of 
 his garment, and was healed. When an electric jar 
 is filled, only a touch will unload it. So it might be 
 in the experience of every believer. I do not know 
 but that, if we were fully the Lord's, the greater 
 part of the good we did would be that of which we 
 were not cognizant. Service would overflow from us. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 If you are abiding in Christ you are reproducing 
 yourself in thousands of instances when you are 
 wholly unaware of it. Out of the personal relation- 
 ship between the soul and Christ come the fruits of 
 holy living. The vine does not bear fruit of itself; 
 it bears its fruit through the branches. Our un- 
 conscious influence thus becomes far more fruitful 
 than our conscious influence. In the last great day 
 many will bewail that they have accomplished so 
 little, and, looking at the scanty results, will say, 
 " When saw we thee hungry, and fed thee ? or athirst, 
 and gave thee drink?" to find that unconsciously 
 their lives had abounded in fruits well pleasing in 
 the Master's sight. It is from such holy lives as 
 this that is derived our Master's highest joy. It is 
 when the whole body of Christ becomes instinct with 
 his spirit that the world is made conscious of his 
 divine headship over the church. 
 
 Bishop Hendrix, 
 
 160 
 
^^^^^M^^^^ 
 
 DAY 
 XXXI 
 
 If you go into a dark room filled with vermin you 
 cannot see anything; but if you light a match, you 
 see some crawling creatures; if you light a lamp 
 you see more; and if you turn on an electric light 
 it reveals the good and the evil in sharp contrast. 
 "That which doth make manifest is light," and 
 Christians are to be lights in the world. When the 
 Christian holds up his light, men are able to see 
 good and evil. The church establishes the moral 
 standard for men who never go near it and for com- 
 munities who reject it. 
 
 Charles A. Blanchard. 
 
 A candle that won't shine in one room is very un- 
 likely to shine in another. If you do not shine at 
 home, if your father and mother, your sister and 
 brother, if the very cat and dog in the house are 
 not the better and happier for your being a Chris- 
 tian, it is a question whether you really are one. 
 
 J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 Whatever rest is provided by Christianity for the 
 children of God, it is certainly never contemplated 
 that it should supersede personal effort. And any 
 rest which ministers to indifference is immoral and 
 unreal— it makes parasites, and not men. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 Let the engineer pull out the throttle and play 
 cards, let the pilot of a steamer in a hurricane im- 
 merse himself in a novel, but let not the watchman 
 of the Lord be anything but awake and in dead 
 earnest, when all around imm.ortal souls are in death- 
 grapple with their great enemy. Cyrus D. Foss. 
 
 161 
 
Dying with Jesus, his death reckoned mine; 
 Living with Jesus, a new life divine; 
 Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine. 
 Moment by moment, Lord, I am thine. 
 
 Moment by moment I'm kept in his love; 
 Moment by moment I've life from above; 
 Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine, 
 Moment by moment, Lord, I am thine. 
 
 Never a trial that he is not there, 
 Never a burden that he doth not bear. 
 Never a sorrow that he doth not share; 
 Moment by moment I'm under his care. 
 
 Never a heartache and never a groan, 
 Never a tear-drop and never a moan. 
 Never a danger, but there on the throne 
 Moment by moment he thinks of his own. 
 
 Never a weakness that he doth not feel. 
 Never a sickness that he cannot heal; 
 Moment by moment, in woe or in weal, 
 Jesus, my Saviour, abides with me still. 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 162 
 
[Mouth of June 
 
 7(oscs 
 Francis L Vat Ion EiU ranee lo Lovers' Retreat 
 
up 
 
 Bias of mind has a great deal to do with the conclu- 
 sion which a man reaches; we have to recognize this 
 sometimes to explain men's manner of dealing with 
 gospel evidence. It is exactly as our Saviour said : " If 
 they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will 
 they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." 
 If the trouble had been a lack of evidence, then more 
 evidence would have helped them. But there was a 
 lack of something else. And when that is the case 
 more evidence does no good. You cannot cure a man's 
 eyes by operating on his ears. We understand that. 
 Here is a president of a bank; he has his books and 
 his securities, and he locks up his safe and sets the 
 time-lock for ten o'clock in the forenoon of the 
 next day. He goes home and thinks of something 
 he would like to get out of the vault. He goes down 
 to the bank, but he cannot open the vault. He has 
 the combination; he may be president and cashier 
 and stock-holder and director all in one, but he can- 
 not open that vault until ten o'clock next day. If 
 he could only get inside, or if there were only some- 
 body inside that he could talk to and tell him to 
 change the adjustment, all that he would want then 
 would be knowledge of the combination. But he 
 cannot open it. That is what I think is really needed 
 in men. They need some one to change them within 
 —what we call regeneration. We may accumulate 
 argument, and pound at men with the presentation 
 of the truth objectively; but we won't do very much 
 until the hour strikes for the soul's release, and when 
 the Spirit does his work then the combination comes 
 into play, and men yield to the power of entreaty and 
 respond to the presentation of evidence and argu- 
 ment. Francis L. Patton. 
 
 163 
 
DAY 
 
 n 
 
 Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? — Acts 
 xix. 2. 
 
 E^ddently there is a reception of the Holy Ghost 
 over and beyond that which first brings us to believe 
 in Jesus. Therefore I put it to you, in all earnest- 
 ness, hast thou received thy share in thy Father's 
 gift ? If not, it is waiting for thee to-day in the hands 
 of the living Saviour, and thou hast but to claim it 
 and it will be thine. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 The filling with the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God 
 coming upon the believer, taking possession of his 
 faculties, imparting to him gifts not naturally his 
 own, but which qualify him for the service to which 
 God has called him. 
 
 R. A. TORREY. 
 
 What, then, shall we do to be filled? What did 
 they do in the days of Hezekiah, when the temple 
 had had all kinds of iniquity and filth brought into 
 it? The priests came and purged out all the filth that 
 they found, and cast it into the brook Kidron. What 
 did they do in Nehemiah's day, when Tobiah had filled 
 God's chambers with household stuff? The prophet 
 cast it all forth out of the Lord's house. What did 
 the Lord Jesus do when the temple was filled with 
 money-changers and sellers of merchandise? He 
 made a scourge of small cords and drove them all out. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 A revelation of Christ by the Spirit to our souls 
 must precede our being filled by Christ with the 
 Spirit. 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 164 
 
DAY 
 
 m 
 
 He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his 
 belly shall flow rivers of living water. — John vii. 38. 
 
 There is a promise to test. Do you believe on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ as the giver of this full blessing? 
 It does not mean, " He that believeth on me for the 
 pardon of his sins," because there are many persons 
 who are pardoned and who have not this fullness of 
 blessing— you can see that rivers of living water do 
 not rush out from them. But it is, "He that be- 
 lieveth on me as the giver of the fullness of the 
 Spirit." Look also at that other passage, " Whoso- 
 ever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall 
 never thirst." I accept that promise. I do believe 
 that I shall never thirst again. I do believe that from 
 me— poor little me— rivers shall flow^, rivers of living 
 water; and God shall be glorified. 
 
 J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 Since it pleased the Father that in Jesus all full- 
 ness should dwell, and it pleases Jesus and the Father, 
 and the Spirit too, that all poor sinners who believe 
 in Jesus shall be branches in him, incorporated into 
 him— since he assumed the connection and the posi- 
 tion of a root to his branches, God has no chance to 
 show himself out if it be not through his people. Oh, 
 think what a glorious company we shall be by and 
 by, when all the fullness in Jesus Christ shall be ex- 
 pressed. Then again, just as if you take away the 
 branches from the root it cannot express itself, so 
 if you take away the root from the branches they 
 must wither and die. The branches depend on the 
 root for their very life, and without the branches the 
 root cannot be manifested— there can be no expres- 
 sion of its nature but through the branches. 
 
 Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 165 
 
DAY 
 IV 
 
 Our Lord's great lesson in John xv. is about the 
 vine and its branches. He says, " I am the vine, ye 
 are the branches." If you look at the branches of 
 a vine, you observe that the bark is the same, the 
 leaves are the same, and the fruit is the same. There 
 is the closest resemblance between the branches and 
 the vine. Some Christians reduce your spiritual 
 temiperature to zero. They have comparatively little 
 or no spirituality, and, worse, they are worldly. If 
 I brought you a slip of a log, and said I had found 
 it growing on a vine, you would say, " I think there 
 is a mistake; this is oak, the leaves are ragged like 
 those of an oak. We are not accustomed to see that 
 kind of branch on a vine." I can believe that that 
 oak grew on a vine before I can believe that some 
 men and women that I have met grow on Jesus Christ. 
 
 M. E. Baldwin. 
 
 A man standing erect on the earth breathes air 
 of a purer quality than that breathed by the insects 
 that crawl at his feet; so the man risen with Christ 
 should stand erect, as a new man in Christ Jesus, and 
 breathe the air of heaven. 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 Make Christ your most constant companion. Be 
 more under his influence than under any other influ- 
 ence. Ten minutes spent in his society every day- 
 aye, two minutes, if it be face to face and heart to 
 heart— will make the whole day different. Every 
 character has an inward spring; let Christ be that 
 spring. Every action has a key-note; let Christ be 
 that note to which your whole life is attuned. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 166 
 
"^- ^ <^h€'^p^ ^^^ 
 
 Israel passed through two stages— two parts of 
 God's work of redemption: God brought them out 
 from Egypt that he might bring them into Canaan. 
 This is applicable to every believer. At conversion 
 God brought you out of Egypt; and the same Al- 
 mighty God is longing to bring you into the Canaan 
 life. God brought the Israelites out, but they would 
 not let him bring them in; so they were obliged to 
 wander for forty years in the wilderness— the type, 
 alas! of so many Christians. The wilderness life is 
 wandering backward and forward; going after the 
 world, and coming back and repenting; led astray by 
 temptation, and returning, only to go off again— a 
 life of ups and downs. In Canaan, on the other hand, 
 is a life of rest, because the soul has learned to trust. 
 A second difference is that one was a life of want, 
 the other a life of plenty. In the wilderness God 
 graciously supplied their wants by the manna and 
 the water from the rock. But alas! they were not 
 content, and their life was one of want and of mur- 
 muring. But in Canaan God gave them a land flowing 
 with milk and honey, a land nourished by the rain 
 of heaven, and which had the very care of God him- 
 self. Oh, believe that there is a possibility of such 
 a change for you, a way out of that life of spiritual 
 want and complaining, into the land of supply of 
 every want! A third difference is that in the 
 wilderness there was no lasting victory. In Canaan 
 they conquered every enemy. So God w^aits to give, 
 not freedom from temptation, but victory every day. 
 You desire an entrance into the life of rest and vic- 
 tory; then in the stillness of your heart say, "My 
 God, I believe there is such a life prepared for me 
 and within my reach." Andrew Murray. 
 
 167 
 
DAY 
 VI 
 
 There are many, very many, Christians who are 
 afraid of making an unreserved surrender to God. 
 They are afraid that God will ask some hard thing 
 of them, or some absurd thing. They fear sometimes 
 that it will upset all their life-plans. In a word, they 
 are afraid to surrender unreservedly to the will of 
 God, for him to do all he wishes to for them and 
 whatsoever he wills with them. Friends, the will of 
 God concerning us is not only the wisest and best 
 thing in the world; it is also the tenderest and sweet- 
 est. God's will for us is not only more loving than 
 a father's; it is more tender than a mother's. It is 
 true that God does oftentimes revolutionize utterly 
 our life-plans when we surrender ourselves to his will. 
 It is true that he does require of us things that to 
 others seem hard. But when the will is once sur- 
 rendered the revolutionized life-plans become just 
 the plans that are most pleasant, and the things that 
 to others seem hard are just the things that are 
 easiest and most delightful. Do not let Satan deceive 
 you into being afraid of God's plans for your life. 
 
 R. A. TORREY. 
 
 When a ship is moored at a dock and is ready to 
 start, the order is given, "Let go!" Then the last 
 rope is loosened and the steamer moves. There are 
 things that tie us to earth and to the self -life; but 
 to-day the message comes, " If thou wouldst die with 
 Jesus, let go!" Jesus carried the penitent thief 
 through death to life. The thief knew not where he 
 was going, but Jesus, the mighty conqueror, took him 
 in his arms and landed him in Paradise in his igno- 
 rance. If you cannot understand all about this cru- 
 cifixion with Christ, never mind; trust the Lord's 
 promise. Andrew Murray. 
 
 168 
 
DAY 
 
 vn 
 
 When a heavy morning mist veils the beautiful 
 valley and hills, the landscape is shut out from our 
 vision. But suddenly there comes a breath, or the 
 sun's rays; the mist parts, and the magnificent sce- 
 nery stands unveiled. So God often parts the mist 
 that hides the future, and shows what a man m.ay be. 
 Young people especially, seek from God the vision of 
 what your life may be, and then follow out that reve- 
 lation, because when you catch God's vision you will 
 always find him responsible for the outworking of it. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 A sculptor has many models from which he chisels 
 various statues, though one may be his masterpiece. 
 But when I come into the Lord's studio I find only 
 one design: that we should be made in the likeness 
 of Jesus Christ. " Whom he did foreknow, he also 
 did predestinate to be conformed to the image of 
 his Son." If you should go to the kingdom of glory 
 to-day, and open the great book of God, and should 
 find your own name there, after that name you would 
 find written these words: "To be conformed to the 
 image of my dear Son." Not the image of Paul, 
 however grand; not that of any sanctified man that 
 we may meet in our pilgrimage here; but that of the 
 dear Lord, that Holy One. You may say that the 
 materials of your heart are vicious,— and they are 
 not single in that,— but be assured that, if Thorwald- 
 sen could not make a masterpiece of art out of loose 
 sandstone, God can make a being that will shine like 
 a star before his throne out of the poor, weary, bur- 
 dened sinners that his grace calls to the hallowed 
 feet of Jesus Christ. The materials form no obstruc- 
 tion to that heavenly architect. 
 
 M. E. Baldwin. 
 
 169 
 
DAY 
 
 vm 
 
 For what are you living? Are your pursuits 
 bounded by the narrow horizon of earth and limited 
 to the fleeting moments of time ? Are you constantly 
 engaged in lining as warmly as possible the nest in 
 which you hope to spend old age and die? Are you 
 perpetually seeking to make the best of this world ? 
 I fear that these are the real aims of many profess- 
 ing Christians; and if so, it is simply useless for them 
 to claim kinship with that stream of pilgrims which 
 is constantly pouring through the earth, bound to 
 the city which hath foundations, their home and 
 mother city. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 Our choice in life must be a cubic choice. It must 
 have three dimensions. First, it must be very high 
 —as high as I can reach with my life. Next, it 
 must be very broad, covering all the powers of my 
 life— mind, voice, hands, feet. And then it must be 
 very long— run out seventy years, if that be the sum 
 of my days on earth. I cannot afford to swap horses 
 in the middle of the stream. I cannot afford to change 
 my choice at thirty or forty. We are to make our 
 choice the highest, the broadest, and the longest 
 possible. This is to be our aim: that the life of 
 Christ in us shall be and do what the life of Christ 
 was and did in himself. We are so to live that our 
 life shall repeat the life of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 Some of the maxims of the ungodly are very good 
 when they are properly interpreted. An example 
 may be found in the maxim, " Take care of number 
 one." Who is number one? The ungodly man says, 
 " I am number one." But God is number one. Take 
 care of God's interests first, and he will look after 
 yours. J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 170 
 
DAY 
 IX 
 
 A soldier was once posted in a forest to watch for 
 the approach of Indians. It was a position of pecu- 
 liar danger, three different men having been surprised 
 and killed at this post without having had time to 
 fire a shot. The soldier was left with strict orders 
 to observe the utmost vigilance. In a short time 
 an object moving among the trees at some distance 
 caught his eye. He watched it attentively, with gun 
 ready, until, as it came a little nearer, he saw it to 
 be a wild hog. Another came in sight. He satisfied 
 himself it was a mid hog, rooting under the leaves. 
 Presently in another direction the leaves were rus- 
 tled, and a third wild hog appeared. Being now 
 used to these creatures, he paid but little attention. 
 The movements of the last animal, however, soon 
 engaged the mean's thoughts. He observed a slight 
 awkwardness in the movements of this one, and 
 thought that possibly an Indian might be approach- 
 ing him covered with a hog's skin. If it was an 
 Indian the safest thing was to shoot. If it was not 
 an Indian, and he should shoot, he would run no risk. 
 He raised his rifle and fired. With a bound and a 
 yell, an Indian leaped to his feet and fell back dead. 
 The man had saved his life, and prevented the sur- 
 prise of the garrison, by his watchfulness. So the 
 child of God must be ever on the alert and guarded 
 against the approaches of the Evil One. Draw the 
 Word of God upon every object that approaches you 
 in this dark world of sin. If the devil is in it, you 
 may be sure the Word will expose him. Stripped of 
 his disguise, he will howl and will leave you. In the 
 name of Christ we can ever have the victory. With- 
 out Christ, and in our own strength or wisdom, we 
 shall suffer defeat. D. W. Whittle. 
 
 171 
 
DAY 
 
 X 
 
 Did you ever notice that when some of the strong- 
 est men in the Bible failed they almost always failed 
 on the strongest point of their character? Elijah 
 was noted for his boldness, and Jezebel scared him 
 out of his wits. Moses was renowned for his meek- 
 ness, humility, and gentleness; yet he became angry 
 and killed that Egjrptian; he was angry and said, 
 "Must I bring water out of this rock, ye rebels?" 
 God kept him out of the Promised Land because he 
 lost his tem^per. If you think you are meek, it is a 
 good sign that you are not. Peter was one of the 
 boldest of all the disciples, but when one little maid 
 looked at him and said, "You are one of his disciples," 
 he began to curse and to swear and to say that he 
 was not, and down he fell. John and James were 
 noted for their meekness and gentleness, and yet 
 they wanted to call fire down from heaven to con- 
 sume a town in Samaria. Do you not see that man 
 is a complete failure away from God? But he that 
 is in you is greater than he that is in the world. 
 When Jesus Christ on the cross said, " It is finished," 
 it was the shout of a conqueror. He had fought and 
 overcome the world. Now if I have Christ in me, I 
 will overcome the world, and if I have not it is the 
 height of madness for me to undertake to overcome. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 The men that have redeemed human history, and 
 stood like lighthouses on the dark and stormy prom- 
 ontories of life, casting out healing rays and saving 
 beams through the dark waters, have been men that 
 got their enthusiasm for humanity out of the cross 
 — men whose motto was, "The love of Christ con- 
 straineth me." M. D. HoGE. 
 
 172 
 
DAY 
 XI 
 
 Christians do not know how much they rob Christ 
 by reading what literature they choose. Bring your 
 mind to the feet of Jesus. Then there is the whole 
 outer life: your relation to society, your home life, 
 your money, your time, and your business. Put 
 everything in the hands of Jesus. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 You never can drive out the uncleanness of evil 
 thoughts except by pouring in the clean wholesome- 
 ness of the thoughts of Christ. Have you made 
 Christ for any length of time the one object of your 
 thought? Try it, you men who want to break loose 
 from the shackles that you know are keeping you 
 away from the great blessing of God and from the 
 pure sweetness of his free and holy life. What else 
 is there to think about that is worth anything, com- 
 pared with him ? All treasures of wisdom and know- 
 ledge are hidden in him. How it must grieve him, 
 who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became 
 poor, to see us filling our minds with passing things, 
 worthless things, dying after the fashion of the world, 
 while Christ is crowded away into some bare and 
 paltry place in our lives! Oh, that we might learn 
 to make Jesus, and Jesus only, the object of all our 
 thinking! If we did, how we w^ould lose taste for 
 much that pleases us no^v! How music, that perhaps 
 takes a large place in our hearts now, would be put 
 into a subordinate place ! How the taste for certain 
 classes of books or of studies or certain lines of 
 thought would vanish into an insignificant place the 
 moment we gave to Jesus Christ the place to which 
 he is entitled in our thinking! 
 
 Robert E. Speer. 
 
 173 
 
DAY 
 
 xn 
 
 Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 
 -Gal. V. 16. 
 
 I do not believe that that passage is meant to be 
 done away with by the Christian. I have heard it 
 said, " I pity St. Paul when he wrote that; he was in 
 a low, groveling experience." Nay, brethren; the 
 lust of the flesh is in all men to the last. If a man 
 says that he is delivered from the flesh so that it 
 has no longer any existence in his experience, he is 
 contradicting God's holy Word. The flesh is there, 
 and what is the Christian to do ? " Walk in the Spirit, 
 and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." The 
 flesh is lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit 
 against the flesh, and you are between the two. The 
 question is, To which are you going to yield? Walk 
 in the Spirit because willingly led of the Spirit, and 
 stay there all the days of your life; if you do, you 
 will never fulfil the lust of the flesh. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 A saint without the help of the Holy Spirit can no 
 more walk in the light as God is in the light than a 
 sinner can be justified apart from the shedding of 
 the blood without which there is no remission. 
 
 Andrew Bonar. 
 
 A good many are trying to work with the anoint- 
 ing they got three years ago. 
 
 D. L, MoQPY. 
 
 174 
 
DAY 
 
 xm 
 
 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, 
 and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days 
 tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and 
 when they were ended, he afterward hungered.— Luke iv. 1, 2. 
 
 Jesus was full of the Holy Ghost, and yet he was 
 tempted. Temptation often comes upon a man with 
 its strongest power when he is nearest to God. As 
 some one has said, the devil aims high. He got one 
 apostle to curse and swear and say he didn't know 
 Christ. Very few men have such conflicts with the 
 devil as Martin Luther had. Why? Because he was 
 going to shake the very kingdom of hell. Oh, what 
 conflicts John Bunyan had! If a m.an has much of 
 the Spirit of God he will have great conflicts with 
 the tempter. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 Our Lord's temptation came right after his bap- 
 tism and right before his ministry, as soon as the 
 heavens had been opened above him, and the Spirit 
 of God was seen descending and resting upon him; 
 immediately the Spirit leadeth him— more, driveth 
 him— into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 
 Ah, my friends, after feelings have been stirred, after 
 resolutions have been made, after means of grace 
 have been received, then we should look for tempta- 
 tions. Those things are not to keep temptation at 
 arm's-length; they are to prepare us to meet temp- 
 tation, to stand in the evil day, to stand by our prom- 
 ise, to be true to God's voice that has been heard, 
 to claim, aye, to appropriate and really make our 
 own, the grace that has been bestowed. 
 
 A. C. A. Hall. 
 
 175 
 
DAY 
 XIV 
 
 But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord.— Micah 
 iii. 8. 
 
 There is a great difference between strength and 
 power. Strength implies ability; but power implies 
 activity and efficiency. A man may be a strong man, 
 even a giant, and yet be powerless because he is 
 bound by fetters— unable to exercise his strength. 
 The great lack in our entire spiritual life is a lack 
 of power. We cannot do the things that we would. 
 Romans vii. 19 is too often the experience not only 
 of the Christian, but of every man: "The good that 
 I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that 
 I do." Ovid said, " I see and approve the right, but 
 I follow and practise the wrong." Therefore the 
 great requirement of man is power— power in two 
 directions: power to overcome evil; power to help 
 others to effect the same thing. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 Christ said that the works that he did we should 
 do, " and greater works than these." He turns us 
 from the miracles unto higher things which are with- 
 in our reach as his disciples. He might have given 
 to us the power to lay our fingers upon benighted 
 eyes and give them sight, to put our hands upon 
 crooked ankle-bones and give them strength, to speak 
 to the sick and bring them back to health, and to 
 summon the dead to life again. Greater works than 
 these are ours. If you open the eyes of a man so 
 that he sees God, if you touch his ankle-bones so that 
 he walks with God, if you bring healing to his spirit 
 and he is made holy, if you shall call the dead to the 
 life of a child of God, your greater work is done. 
 
 Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 176 
 
DAY 
 XV 
 
 Son, go work to-day in my vineyard.— Matt. xxi. 28. 
 
 Let US put out of our minds forever the thought 
 that thirty years from now we are going to do some- 
 thing. You will not, unless you do it now. There 
 is more time wasted, more sin committed, waiting 
 for a more propitious opportunity than from any 
 other one cause. ''Behold, now"— not thirty minutes 
 from now, not ten seconds ahead, but now; the " now " 
 of Scripture has not the duration of a thousandth 
 part of a second. " Now is the accepted time," no* 
 only to believe on Jesus Christ, but to serve him. 
 
 H. C. Mabie. 
 
 A religion of effortless adoration may be a religion 
 for an angel, but never for a man. Not in the con- 
 templative, but in the active, lies true hope; not in 
 rapture, but in reality, lies true life; not in the realm 
 of ideals, but among tangible things, is man's sanc- 
 tification wrought. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 Don^t wait for something to turn up, but go and 
 turn up something. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 We are not responsible for results. What is suc- 
 cess in our estimation may be failure from God's 
 standpoint. Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost 
 and lifted three thousand people into the kingdom. 
 Stephen was filled with the Holy Ghost and was 
 stoned to death. One was as great a triumph as the 
 other in the thought of God. 
 
 J. Wilbur Chapman. 
 
 177 
 
DAY 
 XVI 
 
 In many theological-treatises the definition of the 
 church is, "A body of believers voluntarily associated 
 together for the purpose of worship and edification." 
 As well say that my body is a voluntary association 
 of hands and feet and ears and eyes, for the purpose 
 of work and locomotion! The fact is that, as my 
 body was formed out of a germ and all stands to- 
 gether in the head, so the church is formed out of 
 Christ. As Eve was taken out of Adam, so the church, 
 the bride of Christ, is taken out of Christ; and when 
 he rises and ascends to the Father, then the Holy 
 Ghost comes down, and as the Word is preached he 
 begins to gather about himself those who are to 
 constitute the church of Christ. 
 
 It is very instructive to notice the " additions " 
 named in the Acts of the Apostles. As soon as Peter 
 finished his first sermon " they that gladly received 
 his word were baptized: and the same day there 
 were added unto them about three thousand souls." 
 The words ''unto them" do not belong there; all 
 that is said is that believers were " added." If we 
 are anxious to know to what they were added, read 
 Acts V. 14: "And believers were the more added to 
 the Lord, multitudes both of men and women." 
 
 Ah! that is it. If you put a slip down into the 
 earth, there will be an addition of branch after 
 branch growing out of it. Jesus Christ came do\\Ti 
 in the person of the Holy Ghost to constitute the 
 center for the church, and as soon as believers were 
 regenerated they became added to him. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 178 
 
^m£^^^ i^ 
 
 Let the blessed Lord come, step aboard our poor 
 fishing-boats, take charge, order us to the right and 
 left, make the biggest of us mere deck-hands. Let 
 the great Master's voice ring from stem to stern on 
 every ship: " Launch out into the deep, and let down 
 your nets for a draft." No m.asters, no lieutenants, 
 no officers, no " orders of clergy"; everybody just a 
 deck-hand to pull ropes and shoot nets when he 
 comes. When the Lord is away, oh, we play fine 
 games ! We divide the boat into the officers' quarters 
 and the forecastle, and we walk majestically on the 
 poop, some of us, and spend a great deal of time dis- 
 cussing the different places and positions, and the 
 rules and regulations— how far my command is to 
 go, and where it is to stop, and on what chalk-line 
 your command begins. Just let the Lord come and 
 take comm.and, and you will not be splitting hairs 
 as to your position in the church. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 There is a familiar story about John Wesley and 
 others going to the river that bounds the Holy City, 
 and finding, to their astonishment, that they had to 
 drop their cloaks and garments in which they ap- 
 proached. One drops his cloak, another his robe, 
 another his surplice, and they come out on the other 
 side astonished to find that they are all in the same 
 white, beautiful robe, the robe of righteousness, 
 which is Christ Jesus, our Lord. Cannot we gain a 
 little more of heaven upon earth by handing out more 
 of the right hand of fellowship? " Stand fast in one 
 spirit, with one mind." 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 179 
 
DAY 
 
 xvm 
 
 We very often see people who say that they do 
 not believe m foreign missions, but believe in home 
 missions. They are very largely like the man in one 
 of our Western States who, when a subscription was 
 presented to him for foreign missions, said, " I don't 
 know anything about them, and I do not want to give 
 my money to the work." They let him rest, but when 
 they had an urgent appeal to help a needy church 
 in Minnesota, they went to him, hoping to get his 
 subscription; but he said, "I do not know anything 
 about Minnesota; that is too far away. I want to 
 give my money right here at home, where I can see 
 what it does." Then, when they found that the fence 
 around the graveyard needed to be repaired, they 
 said, '* Well, we have him now sure." And so they 
 presented the subscription for the fence around the 
 graveyard, and the good brother looked at it and said 
 very solemnly, " I don't see the use of that; for those 
 that are in there can't get out, and those who are out 
 don't want to get in." That is my belief in regard 
 to people professing to be Christians who have no 
 interest in foreign missions. I do not think they have 
 any interest in any mission; for when they have the 
 interest which the divine teaching brings they will 
 want to have the gospel preached to every creature. 
 
 S. L. Baldwin. 
 
 I do not imagine that an Anglo-Saxon is any dearer 
 to God than a Mongolian or an African. My plea is 
 not, save America for America's sake, but, save 
 America for the world's sake. 
 
 JosiAH Strong. 
 
 180 
 
•^t t^f^fi^^'?^^^ DAY 
 
 Five hundred years before Christ India was groan- 
 ing under Brahmanical sacerdotalism, priestcraft, 
 polytheism, idolatry, and caste. Buddha arose as a 
 reformer, teaching them that there was one .God, 
 that no human mediation was necessary between 
 God and man, that all men constituted one brother- 
 hood. He fired his disciples with zeal, and they went 
 forth with him to conquer India to their new-found 
 faith. Kings became the nursing fathers of the new 
 religion. A prince crossed to Ceylon, and that island 
 was converted to Buddhism. They penetrated the 
 jungles and climbed the mountains, and Siam and its 
 monarch embraced the faith. They climbed the 
 Himalayas, and the Nepaulese became Buddhists. 
 They climbed over into Tibet, and that land is to-day 
 their stronghold. They passed on into Siberia and 
 into China, and that mighty empire embraced their 
 faith. They crossed over to Japan, and the standard 
 of Buddha was planted there. 
 
 Let this history be a prophecy and an inspiration 
 to us. We may, by God's blessing, bring India to 
 Christ within our generation. The Hindu converts, 
 touched by the divine fire, inspired by the love of 
 Christ, will repeat the history of the past, but with 
 new zeal, aided by a power that Buddha's disciples 
 knew not. The nations of Asia will be conquered for 
 Christ, and will together plant the royal standard of 
 King Immanuel, and from those united hosts will go 
 up the shout, "Halleluiah: for the Lord God omnip- 
 otent reigneth." Brothers, be it ours, each one, to 
 own a share in that halleluiah shout of victory. 
 
 Jacob Chamberlain. 
 
 181 
 
DAY 
 XX 
 
 There is none other name under heaven given among men, 
 v/hereby we must be saved. — Acts iv. 12. 
 
 Apart from Christianity we have nothing to depend 
 upon. Without stopping to decide the question 
 whether your Christian experiences have been genu- 
 ine or not,— you need not go into the rubbish of 
 the past,— if you give up Christianity you are gone. 
 
 John A. Broadus. 
 
 If Christianity were a mere philosophy, you would 
 spin it out of your own brain, and then you would 
 write articles and defend your positions against 
 others, and they would defend theirs against you, 
 and when you got through it would make very little 
 difference whether you or they came out ahead. A 
 great deal of philosophical discussion consists in a 
 trial of wits, in sword-play. If it were a matter of 
 science, you would scrutinize the facts and by a pro- 
 cess of induction generalize the laws that express 
 the order of sequence in which these facts occur. 
 Christianity is neither philosophy nor science. A 
 circumstance occurred last night outside of your 
 knowledge, except as somebody conversant with the 
 facts comes to you and tells you the facts. And, upon 
 the assumption that men generally speak the truth, 
 you believe your informant, and you call the recital of 
 the facts " a piece of information." Now the Chris- 
 tian religion is a piece of information about some- 
 thing that happened outside of your knowledge, and 
 that you never could have known under any circum- 
 stances, and that no process of thinking could have 
 ever educed, induced, or deduced; it is a piece of 
 information given to us on the part of God. 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 182 
 
DAY 
 XXI 
 
 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to 
 all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 
 — James i. 5. 
 
 The truth of a personal God is the great and fun- 
 damental need of philosophy and of human life, the 
 one prof oundest want of man's brain and of his heart. 
 The great masters of skeptical thought, after the 
 profoundest investigations into the science of the 
 known and the probable, come back with the awe- 
 struck air of men who have heard footsteps which 
 they cannot trace, and the rustle of royal robes whose 
 wearer is unknown to them. Thus they go a step 
 further than Athens, which worshiped the "unknown 
 God," while they recognize merely the " unknown." 
 I am reminded of some doubters by the royal psalm- 
 ist: "The fool hath said in his heart. There is no 
 God "—as though only a fool could say it, and he only 
 in his heart. Lord Bacon, great in logic and not 
 mean in philosophy, said, " I would rather believe ail 
 the fables of the Talmud and the Koran than that 
 this universal frame is without a mind." The great 
 want of philosophy is God; and if of philosophy, how 
 much more of the great, aching brain and heart of 
 the world, which in every age has cried out, " As the 
 hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my 
 soul after thee, God." Cyrus D. Foss. 
 
 No man of the human race has been in circum- 
 stances to become absolutely wise; but every one of 
 the human family possessed of sufficient wisdom to 
 be responsible can be good; and Jesus did not say, 
 " Blessed are the wise in head," but, " The pure in 
 heart shall see God." I. D. Driver. 
 
 183 
 
DAY 
 
 xxn 
 
 What is called "metaphysics" is often only a' 
 beclouding of a hearer's mind by subtleties that are 
 meant to confuse and bewilder. 
 
 A certain case at law turned on the resemblance 
 between two car-wheels, and Webster and Choate 
 were the opposing counsel. To a common eye the 
 wheels looked as if made from the same model, but 
 Choate, by a tram of hair-splitting reasoning and a 
 profound discourse on the " fixation of points," tried 
 to overwhelm the jury with metaphysics, and to com- 
 pel them to conclude, against the evidence of their 
 eyes, that there was really hardly a shadow of essen- 
 tial resemblance. Webster rose to reply. " Gentle- 
 men of the jury," said he, as he opened wide his great 
 black eyes and stared at the big twin wheels before 
 him, ''there they are— look at 'em!" As he thun- 
 dered out these words it was as though one of Jupi- 
 ter's bolts had struck the earth. 
 
 That one sentence and look shattered Choate^s 
 subtle argument to atoms, and the cunning sophistry 
 on the '' fixation of points " dissolved as into air. I 
 have great confidence in the strong common sense 
 of an honest mind feeling the utter worthlessness of 
 an argument even v/hen unable to tell the reason why. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 The alternatives of the intellectual life are Chris- 
 tianity or agnosticism. The agnostic is right when 
 he trumpets his incompleteness. He who is not com- 
 plete in Him must be forever incomplete. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 184 
 
DAY 
 
 xxm 
 
 Faith has done many things in this world besides 
 the bringing down of the walls of Jericho. Men 
 sometimes laugh at faith as though it were a feeble 
 thing, when, in fact, it is one of the great forces of 
 the world. 
 
 If we were to use scriptural language with regard 
 to all the things that faith has accomplished, we 
 might speak as follows: By faith Columbus crossed 
 the ocean, not knomng whither he went. By faith 
 Cyrus Field planned and perfected the Atlantic cable, 
 while all men laughed at him and called him vision- 
 ary. By faith our forefathers crossed the deep, 
 seeking a country where they could freely worship 
 their God. By faith Edison toiled on, seeking new 
 discoveries in his science, not sure of the issue of his 
 efforts. All these ^^TOught with faith, and so worked 
 wonders. The fact is that without faith the world 
 would come to a standstill. 
 
 This same faith applied to spiritual things has done 
 wonders for the world. Faith in the word and prom- 
 ises of God has led to the establishment of mission- 
 ary work all over the world. Faith leads men and 
 women to go far from home and friends to preach 
 the truth to those in darkest Africa. Faith leads the 
 city missionary to go to the plague-spots in darkest 
 New York or London, and to believe that he can bring 
 light and purity there. And God rewards this faith, 
 so that the modern miracles are not so much those 
 of the healing of the bodies of men as of their spirits. 
 If ever this old and sinful world is to be made over, 
 so that it shall be full of righteousness, it wall only 
 be when men act more by faith and less by sight, 
 and dare and do great things for God and their fel- 
 low-men. A. F. SCHAUFFLER. 
 
 185 
 
DAY 
 XXIV 
 
 Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide j^ourselves bags which 
 wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not.— Luke 
 xii. 33. 
 
 A bag that does not wax old is one that will never 
 fail to be sending in an income. There are men in 
 heaven, saved by grace (as all are), who were rich 
 while on earth. But all their money was invested in 
 fine mansions and gardens and railroads and bank 
 shares. When they had possession of them they failed 
 to convert any part of them into the exchange of 
 heaven, and now they get no more good from them. 
 Ask him, " saint, are you getting in anything now 
 from your investments down there?" He will tell 
 you, "Nothing whatever; the interest is all paid in 
 the coin of earth, and that is not transmissible. I 
 ought to have seen to that when I had a chance; I 
 cannot do it now." Very different is it with the saints 
 who have given money to help save men from death, 
 whether the amounts be large or small. Look, for 
 example, at those who in some wise way have in- 
 vested their property vdth a view to results in another 
 world. Ask them, " Are you getting any income from 
 your investments down there ? " " Oh yes, a wonder- 
 ful income. There is a continual stream of persons 
 coming in here who were started heavenward or were 
 helped on their way by those investments. They are 
 beginning to come up out of all lands and tribes and 
 kindreds and tongues." These earthly investments 
 pay dividends in heaven. WilliAxM Ashmore. 
 
 Christianity removes the attraction of the earth; 
 and this is one way in which it diminishes men's 
 burden. It makes them citizens of another world. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 186 
 
DAY 
 XXV 
 
 Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin 
 by the sacrifice of himself.— Heb. ix. 26. 
 
 When sin entered into the world, and long before 
 sin entered into the world, the God of all grace had 
 provided a remedy. The Lamb of God was slain from 
 the foundation of the world. But Adam was not 
 created from the foundation of the world. Then God 
 had provided that when man sinned, and entailed 
 death upon himself, he might die by proxy. That 
 was what the great heart of God proposed and pro- 
 vided, determined and arranged. And many a picture 
 was hung out before the world to set it forth. When 
 Adam's nakedness was discovered to him, and he 
 tried to make himself clothes of fig-leaves, God pro- 
 vided him with better clothes; he clothed him and 
 he clothed Eve with the skins of beasts. The life of 
 the animal that provided the clothing of course was 
 forfeited. It was the first illustration of the great 
 substitution that the Lord in his love had provided. 
 Ages rolled on and animals were sacrificed. There 
 was the morning lamb, and there was the evening 
 lamb, telling of the blood that was to be the substi- 
 tute for the life of man (for the blood is the life), 
 until at last the Lamb himself came— the Lamb of 
 God, that taketh away the sin of the world. As it 
 was " appointed unto men once to die,"— the great 
 emphasis is upon the "once,"— so Christ was once 
 offered. And oh, " if the blood of bulls and of goats, 
 and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, 
 sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much 
 more shall the blood of Christ . . . purge your con- 
 science from dead works to serve the living God ? " 
 
 Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 187 
 
DAY 
 XXVI 
 
 A man is not converted without first having con- 
 viction of sin. When that conviction of sin comes 
 and his eyes are opened, he learns to be afraid of his 
 sin and to flee from it to Christ. But a man needs 
 a second conviction of sin; a believer must be con- 
 victed of his peculiar sin. The sins of an uncon- 
 verted man are different from the sins of a believer. 
 An unconverted man, for instance, is not ordinarily 
 convicted of the corruption of his nature; he thinks 
 principally about external sins: " I have taken God's 
 name in vain, been a liar, and I am on the way to 
 hell." He is then convicted for conversion. But the 
 believer is in quite a different condition. His sins 
 are far more blamable, for he has had the light and 
 the love and the Spirit of God given to him. He has 
 striven to conquer his sins, and has grown to see that 
 his nature is utterly corrupt, that the carnal mind, 
 the flesh within him, was making his whole state 
 utterly wretched. When a believer is thus convicted 
 by the Holy Spirit, it is specially his life of unbelief 
 that condemns him; he sees that, because of the great 
 guilt connected with this, he has been kept from 
 receiving the full gift of God's Holy Spirit; he is 
 brought' down in shame and confusion of face, and 
 he begins to cry, " Woe is me, for I am undone. I 
 have heard of God by the hearing of the ear; I have 
 known a great deal of him, and preached about him, 
 but now my eye seeth him." God comes near him, 
 and Job, the righteous man whom God had trusted, 
 sees in himself the deep sin of self and its right- 
 eousness that he had never seen before. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 188 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvn 
 
 In these days there is a great deal of lowering the 
 standards. Business men tell me that business 
 standards have been lowered, and now a good deal 
 of business runs into gambling. In politics the 
 standards have been lowered. There has been a 
 lowering of standards in theology, and in reference 
 to the supreme authority of God's iDlessed Book. We 
 must keep the standard up to the very tiptop peak 
 of God's flagstaff. Be careful, my brother, about 
 lowering your standard of right, obedience, and holi- 
 ness. You remember, perhaps, that scene in the days 
 of conflict, when a color-sergeant had carried the 
 colors so near to the enemy's redoubt that the regi- 
 ment shouted to him to bring them back or they 
 would be captured. The color-sergeant said, "No, 
 no; bring your men up to the colors! " With a mag- 
 nificent dash, they carried the colors themselves into 
 the rampart. The commandment of the Captain of 
 our salvation to us ministers is, " Bring my church 
 up to my colors, and then we will go forward and 
 capture the enemy." Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 One in twelve of the ancient apostles was a Judas. 
 I don't believe that one in twelve of the modern 
 apostles is a Judas. Nevertheless, there is this dif- 
 ference between the ancient and the modern: the 
 ancient Judas carried the bag, and when he betrayed 
 his Master he had the grace to go and hang himself. 
 In our modern church system, when the man who 
 carries the bag proves dishonest he shows no sorrow; 
 and, what is worse, the churches have such lax ideas 
 of discipline that they do not even turn him out of 
 ofiice. Joseph Cook. 
 
 189 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvm 
 
 I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of 
 his holy hill.— Ps. iii. 4. 
 
 What a grand philosophy of prayer we get in God's 
 Book! Down here in darkness, with trouble closing 
 upon me like wolves upon the belated traveler, I 
 cried; and One as loving and human and personal as 
 myself heard me. My Father, God up yonder in 
 heaven, heard me. When I, his child, fell down here 
 on the earth, I tried to get up and began to cry. He 
 knew the cry of his bairn, and, quicker than I can tell 
 it, flew to my relief. *' That's my David," said God, 
 as he rose and came to the front door of heaven to 
 listen, when they were badgering him and the hounds 
 of hell were upon him. *' I knew my David's voice 
 among ten thousand voices." And God came out and 
 scattered the foe right and left, and set him on high 
 from all his enemies. John McNeill. 
 
 If we had prayed more we need not have worked 
 so hard. We have too little praying face to face 
 with God every day. Looking back at the end, I 
 suspect there will be great grief for our sins of 
 omission— omission to get from God what we might 
 have got by praying. Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 Jesus never taught his disciples how to preach, 
 but he did teach them how to pray. I would rather 
 be able to pray like Daniel than to preach like Ga- 
 briel. If men know how to pray they know how to 
 work for God. D. L. Moody. 
 
 You may work without praying, but you can't pray 
 without working. J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 190 
 
Pray without ceasing.— 1 Thess. v. 17. 
 
 We prove the value which we attach to things by 
 the time we devote to them. The kingdom of God 
 asks our time, and it is only by giving it that the 
 kingdom can be kept in its true place, first every day, 
 and all day. God has broken up our lifetime into 
 day and night. One object of that is that we may 
 learn to live a day at a time, and should thus have 
 a time every morning, after having been raised out 
 of sleep in which we were utterly helpless, when we 
 should begin afresh with our God. Begin the day 
 with God, and God will maintain his kingdom in your 
 heart. Andrew Murray. 
 
 Men do not excel to-day, because, after their con- 
 version, they do not go apart, like Moses and Paul, 
 into Horeb or Arabia for a season. Young Chris- 
 tians must go into Arabia. Book-learning mil never 
 make preachers. You must but get away alone with 
 God and his holy Word, and let God speak to you 
 until you can see God. Then you will see the burn- 
 ing bush, the majesty of God, and it will make you 
 take off your shoes, for you will see that the ground 
 whereon you stand is holy. Then only will God call 
 you to be delivered and a deliverer. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 He who rushes into the presence of God and hur- 
 riedly whispers a few petitions and rushes out again 
 never, perhaps, sees God there at all. He can no 
 more get a vision than a disquieted lake can mirror 
 the stars. We must stay long enough to become 
 calm, for it is only the peaceful soul in which eternal 
 things are reflected as in a placid water. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 191 
 
^ ^cO^y^P 
 
 There is no warrant for carelessness or self-suffi- 
 ciency in the smallest thing we may be called upon 
 to do for God. A young divinity student in Ireland 
 was preaching for the Bishop of Cashel. As they 
 went into the pulpit the good bishop asked the young 
 student what he would preach about. He replied 
 that he had made no preparation, and that he was 
 quite uncertain, but was confident that he could oc- 
 cupy the time, as he was just from the university. 
 After two or three minutes of labor over a text glibly 
 given out, he broke down in confusion, and the bishop 
 was obliged to finish the sermon. When they came 
 back to the vestry the young man buried his face in 
 his hands and groaned in shame and humiliation. 
 " My young brother," said the bishop, " if you had 
 gone up as you came down, you would have come 
 down as you went up." 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 May we always have grace to take our proper 
 place under the Master's table and plead for the 
 crumbs. God says you have sinned and come short 
 of his glory. Let us reply, "Truth, Lord; yet thou 
 receivest sinners and eatest with them." God says, 
 " Ye are weakness itself." " Truth, Lord; yet in our 
 weakness thou dost delight to show forth thy 
 strength." God says, "Your msdom is folly." 
 "Truth, Lord; yet thou hast promised to give wis- 
 dom to them that ask it of thee." We receive God's 
 favors only as we thus accept the positions of un- 
 worthiness and weakness to which we are assigned 
 in his Word. 
 
 A. C. Dixon, 
 
 192 
 
(Mouth of filly 
 
 Topples 
 Arthur T. Tierson %oiiiid Top 
 
Concerning the work of my hands command ye me.— Isa. xlv. 
 11. 
 
 In nature we find great universal forces— light, 
 heat, gravity, cohesion, magnetism, electricity, chem- 
 ical affinity, life. We have only to understand the 
 laws or conditions within which they act, and we may 
 command them: obey the law of the power, and the 
 power obeys you. Thus we command light, and it 
 becomes our artist; heat, and it becomes our refiner 
 and purifier; gravity, and it becomes our giant me- 
 chanic; magnetism, our pilot; electricity, our motor, 
 messenger, illuminator. The Holy Spirit is the all- 
 subduing power of the spiritual realm. Obey the law^s 
 of the Spirit, and all his power is at your disposal. 
 In the work of God the believer may command him. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson, 
 
 Imagine one mthout genius, and devoid of the 
 artist's training, sitting down before Raphael's fa- 
 mous picture of the " Transfiguration " and attempt- 
 ing to reproduce it! How crude and mechanical and 
 lifeless his work would be! But if such a thing were 
 possible that the spirit of Raphael should enter into 
 the man, and obtain the mastery of his mind and eye 
 and hand, it would be entirely possible that he should 
 reproduce this masterpiece; for it would simply be 
 Raphael reproducing Raphael. For this purpose have 
 we been filled with the Spirit of God, that we might 
 do the very things which he would do if he were here. 
 " The works that I do shall ye do also ; and greater 
 works than these shall ye do; because I go unto my 
 Father." 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 193 
 
DAY 
 U 
 
 God never alters his law. The two visits of Moses 
 up the mount were different, yet they ended in the 
 same way. Moses broke the first tables of stone, 
 but made the new exactly the same. It is as impos- 
 sible to alter God's law as to alter his throne. You 
 cannot get above the law. Then get deeper and 
 deeper in sympathy with it, because that law is the 
 mind of God. Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 In our estimate of the decalogue we have made 
 too much of the law element, and too little of the 
 element of love. As a consequence, it has not been 
 easy for us to see how it is that God's law is love, 
 and that love is the fulfilling of God's law. But the 
 ten commandments are a simple record of God's 
 loving covenant with his people, and they are not 
 the arbitrary commandings of God to his subjects. 
 They indicate the inevitable limits within which God 
 and his people can be in loving union rather than 
 declare the limits of dutiful obedience on the part 
 of those who would be God's faithful subjects. 
 
 Henry Clay Trumbull. 
 
 The law is used by God as the means of putting 
 an end to man's boasting; it stops every man's mouth. 
 A man who is trying to measure himself by the law 
 is pretty small; but if he measures himself by his 
 neighbors he thinks that he is about two inches taller 
 than any one else. Under the old dispensation the 
 prodigal would have been turned out and stoned. 
 The law says, ''Smite him;" grace says, "Forgive 
 him." The law says, ''Cast him out;" grace says, 
 " Bring him in." ' D. L. Moody. 
 
 194 
 
DAY 
 
 m 
 
 God does not want any further expiation for sin 
 than that which has already been so blessedly ac- 
 cepted. Christ's resurrection is receipt in full for 
 all the law's just claim upon us; and the Holy Ghost 
 has come down to give us a blank draft upon God's 
 fullness. He writes his name— I AM; and you put 
 in what you want, send it, backed by faith and 
 prayer, and God will honor it. Do you want strength ? 
 "I am strength." Do you want salvation? "I am 
 salvation." Do you want peace ? " I am that peace." 
 It is all for Jesus, and all for you; for, as it has 
 pleased God that in Christ all fullness should dwell, 
 so he is pleased that of his fullness all we should 
 receive, and grace for grace. There is no fountain 
 on this earth to slake a poor sinner's thirst, li you 
 do not get a drink from the living water you will 
 never be satisfied. All the kingdoms of the earth 
 are vanity and vexation of spirit. 
 
 Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 The love of God is as universal now as in the day 
 when Jesus Christ said it included every man; the 
 needs of the world are as intense to-day as when 
 they pierced the very heart of God and drew his 
 only Son down to earth to die for the sins of men. 
 The pathetic appeal of the poor lost world, as it 
 staggers, blindfold, around the great altar, is the 
 more pitiable because it does not know it is blind, 
 and calls us to an immediate and undaunted effort 
 to at once undertake operations which shall secure, 
 before we die, the evangelization of this world. 
 
 Robert E. Speer. 
 
 195 
 
DAY 
 IV 
 
 The Lord's portion is his people.— Deut. xxxii. 9. 
 
 We should be solicitous not only as to what we 
 have in God, but what God has in us. We are God's 
 heritage; we are his property, which he has re- 
 claimed from the waste wilderness of the world, 
 which he has fertilized with his own blood, which 
 he has fenced in by his cross, in which he has erected 
 his dwelling-place, and which he has brought under 
 his own cultivation. soul, conceive of thyself as 
 an estate which has come into the possession of the 
 eternal God. Some time ago, in Scotland, I gained 
 new light upon this thought, as I noticed the amount 
 of care which Scotch people take of very poor land. 
 Some of us have been barren land, just reclaimed 
 from the ocean of barrenness and waste, and we 
 have come beneath the cultivation of God, and, if 
 we will only let him, God is prepared to bring under 
 his care every faculty, every quality of our nature, 
 leaving no part untouched, but raising crop after 
 crop out of us— his estate. In earlier life we are 
 all inclined to do the best we can with our powers 
 for God, till repeated failure convinces us how little 
 we can make of ourselves; and when the sun is 
 reaching its zenith, when we have despaired of get- 
 ting any more crops out of the soil that seems hope- 
 lessly impoverished, we are led to fall back upon God 
 and say to him, "My God, this estate is thine; rear 
 from the spirit, from the imagination, from the will, 
 from the affections, from all the powers that thou 
 hast given me, some fruit which shall bring glory to 
 thee and shall keep my life from having been wasted." 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 196 
 
DAY 
 
 V 
 
 Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth ... to declare his 
 righteousness [justification] for the remission of sins that are 
 past, through the forebearance of God; to declare, I say, at this 
 time his righteousness : that he might be just, and the justifier of 
 him which believeth in Jesus.— Rom. iii. 24, 26. 
 
 Righteousness, or justification, means, therefore, 
 not only the sinner's vindication, but God's vindica- 
 tion. It is the divine scheme of mercy and love 
 whereby God can acquit and justify a transgressor, 
 and yet acquit and justify himself, as having no 
 complicity with guilt or sin or laxity as to his in- 
 violable law. 
 
 This side of justification is habitually overlooked. 
 In pardoning sin the perfection of God is in danger 
 of compromise. In the loose notions of forgiveness 
 now prevalent, there is a tendency to magnify love 
 at the expense of belittling law. Perfect govern- 
 ment demands perfect law, and perfect law demands 
 perfect sanctions of reward and penalty. The cer- 
 tainty that every transgression and disobedience re- 
 ceives its just recompense of reward is part of the 
 perfection of God and his government. Laxity of 
 administration imperils the foundations of society. 
 Hence, if God forgives and justifies the sinner, it 
 must be in such a way as to justify himself. His 
 law must be kept intact and his justice must not 
 suffer for the sake of his mercy. 
 
 Here lies the glory of God's justification. It 
 is so provided for as that law and justice and 
 government and the character of God are abso- 
 lutely safe. Penalty is borne by the innocent Sub- 
 stitute, so that the law is magnified; the hatred of 
 sin is as manifest in the sacrifice of God's dear Son 
 as though all transgressors received their full rec- 
 ompense. Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 197 
 
DAY 
 VI 
 
 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than 
 Cain.— Heb. xi. 4. 
 
 Abel's offering was such as God could accept. 
 His first thought was to get rid of sin; he came with 
 the blood. Cain, like the Pharisee who "prayed 
 with himself," offered unto himself. He came with 
 the fruits of his field as the result of his industry 
 and intelligence. There was no mysticism about 
 him; in his own opinion, he had no sin needing 
 atonement; if, indeed, there was sin, he thought that 
 his industry and other good qualities made amends 
 for it, so that God would accept his fruits as an 
 atonement for his faults. He presented the fruit 
 of prayer with the serpent of sin coiled in it. Abel 
 heroically saw himself as he was; Cain looked at 
 himself as he wished to be. Sinner that he was, 
 Abel presented the offering of blood ; self-complacent 
 as he was, Cain refused to confess his sin, which, un- 
 confessed, soon developed into crime. 
 
 A. C. Dixon. 
 
 Men will never find salvation until they give up 
 all efforts to save themselves. Some one asked an 
 Indian how he got converted. He built a fire in a 
 circle round a worm, and then, after the worm had 
 crawled round every way and then lay down to die, 
 he reached over and took him out. That is the way 
 in which God saves us. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 198 
 
DAY 
 
 vn 
 
 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born 
 of the Spirit is spirit.— John iii. 6. 
 
 Spiritual things may be imitated by the flesh but 
 cannot be produced from it. It would be folly to 
 look for anything but crab-apples from a crab-apple 
 tree, if no better fruit had been grafted in upon its 
 stem. So it is useless to exhort a piety that does 
 not exist, and fruitless to teach an unregenerate 
 man to cultivate an unrenewed heart. 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 The Spirit must convict before you can convert. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 Not more certain is it that it is something outside 
 the thermometer that produces a change in the 
 thermometer than it is something outside the soul 
 of man that produces a moral change upon him. 
 That he must be susceptible to that change, that he 
 must be a party to it, goes without saying; but that 
 neither his aptitude nor his will can produce it is 
 equally certain. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 He who would be most like Christ must pay the 
 cost. As God reckons jewelry, there is no gem that 
 shines with more brilliancy than the tear of true 
 penitence; yet God only knoweth what heart-pres- 
 sure and what crushing of wilful pride may have 
 been necessary to force the tear to the cheek of 
 a stubborn sinner. 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 199 
 
DAY 
 
 vm 
 
 There is no joy like hearing the joy-song of a 
 new-born soul. Yes, another joy may be as deep— 
 the joy of sympathy with Jesus in his rejected life, 
 and the assurance that the Father looks on me with 
 pleasure. Think of the number of Christians in the 
 world, and then of the unsaved millions of heathen- 
 dom, and then ask, Are we true followers of Christ, 
 who went all the way to Calvary to give his blood 
 for man? Remember, the joy of the Holy Ghost is 
 the joy of working for God. Most of us look at all 
 our facilities for work and say that we will try to 
 manage these things better. Oh, if we had a sense 
 of the state of the millions around us, we should 
 fall on our faces before God and say, " God help us 
 to something new. Oh, that every fiber of my being 
 may be taken possession of for this great work with 
 God!" Andrew Murray. 
 
 If I had the choice of preaching like Gabriel, 
 swaying men at my will, without winning them to 
 Christ, or taking them one by one in private and 
 leading them to the truth, how gladly would I 
 choose the latter! Men ought to prize the reputa- 
 tion of knowing how to win young men and clear 
 away their troubles. It is the greatest honor you 
 and I can enjoy. D. L. Moody. 
 
 Personal work means helpful contact with another 
 so as to awaken or promote in him the Christ-life. 
 Aim to put yourself in his place, and in Christ's 
 place in relation to him. Seek to learn what is his 
 real difficulty, the truth he needs to realize; how to 
 win an entrance for truth into his heart, and to find 
 a parallel case in Scripture. 
 
 James McConaughy. 
 
 200 
 
DAY 
 IX 
 
 The atonement of Christ reveals the great heart 
 of the Ahnighty beating with love and compassion 
 for men; and to attempt to reduce it to any theory 
 is sim^ply presumptuous and hopeless. "The good 
 Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." There are 
 the sheep, and there are the wolves, and here is the 
 good Shepherd. I understand thus much thoroughly, 
 that I should have died from the wolves if Jesus 
 Christ had not died for me. But I bless God that 
 the atonement is so great I cannot measure it, that 
 the heart of the Eternal is so deep I cannot sound 
 it. There is such a vastness in atoning love, there 
 is such fullness in it, that it cannot be reduced to 
 any form of speech, and the reverent heart comes 
 at last to see this great, burning, loving heart of 
 the Eternal and to be quiet in adoring love and trust. 
 
 Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 What could the world give Christ that was not 
 already his? What could it add to the position of 
 one of whom it was said, " By him were all things 
 made, and without him was not anything made that 
 was made " ? What could the world add to the glory 
 of him who had been by the Father seated at his 
 own right hand, far above principalities and powers 
 and thrones and dominions, with a name above every 
 name? There was but one new glory Christ could 
 acquire— that of service and sacrifice. All crowns 
 were already his, save one— the crown of thorns. 
 His whole life was a ministry of love, of instruction 
 to the ignorant, pardon to the penitent, healing to 
 the sick, and comfort to the sorrowing. 
 
 M. D. HOGE. 
 
 201 
 
DAY 
 X 
 
 If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus 
 Christ the righteous.— 1 John ii. 1. 
 
 I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Advocate. 
 — John xiv. 16. 
 
 After the day of Pentecost this promise of another 
 Advocate was fulfilled, and now what do we have? 
 One Advocate on the throne; another Advocate here; 
 just as, sometimes, there is a law firm in which there 
 are two partners. One of them is the pleader, and 
 the other is the counselor. The one goes into court; 
 the other occupies the office, and gives advice and 
 counsel to the clients. So to-day there are two 
 partners in the divine Trinity. One has gone into 
 court; he is the Advocate to plead for us there; the 
 other is down here, and he is the Counselor. What- 
 ever Jesus Christ, the Advocate, does for us up there, 
 the other Advocate does in us down here. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 There is a great difference between possessing the 
 Spirit and being possessed by the Spirit. Was there 
 not a difference between the apostles before and 
 after Pentecost? Before, they were full of rivalry 
 and jealousy, weak in confessing their Master, and 
 quick to misunderstand him; but after, they were 
 bold as lions, intelligent, loving, spiritual. Chrono- 
 logically we are living on this side of Pentecost; 
 but experimentally many are living upon the other 
 side. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 202 
 
DAY 
 XI 
 
 We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the 
 Spirit himself maketh intercession for us.— Rom. viii. 26. 
 
 The Greek or Roman advocate helped his client in 
 two different ways. Sometimes he spoke for the 
 client before the tribunal, as our advocates do, and 
 it is in this sense that Christ is called our Advocate, 
 pleading for us before the throne. But in other 
 cases the ancient advocate merely prepared a speech 
 which the client might speak for himself. It is in 
 this sense that the Holy Spirit is our Advocate. He 
 teaches us what to pray for. The desires which the 
 Spirit works in the heart will often be too deep to 
 find adequate expression in human language; and so 
 the Spirit is said to intercede with groanings which 
 cannot be uttered. But their meaning is fully known 
 to God, and the prayer which the Spirit works in us 
 is sure to be according to the will of God, and it is 
 as sure to be answered. 
 
 John A. Broadus. 
 
 When, in Christ's name, we come to God, not we, 
 but he is the suppliant. Hence he is said to offer 
 the prayers of God's saints at the golden altar which 
 is before the throne, and even to pray the Father 
 for us. More than this, he hints that it is not need- 
 ful that he should thus pray the Father for us, for 
 the Father himself loves us because we have believed 
 in Jesus and are thus one with him, whom the Father 
 heareth always. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 203 
 
DAY 
 XII 
 
 It is not God who has not given; it is we who have 
 not taken. We have filled the temple of God with 
 our household stuff, and have put the money-changers 
 and divers kinds of folly into the Father's house; 
 therefore we are not filled with the Holy Ghost. 
 Let a man, let the church, go down before God and 
 say, "Search me, God." When he has searched 
 you, he will show you things you never knew. You 
 can only get rid of what you find; and God gives no 
 further than man can take; and man can take only 
 what he knows. Let us go to God and tell him all 
 our sin and folly, and the pride that has prevented 
 us from confessing the evil things of which we knew. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 An old man once said to me, *' Do you think that 
 it is right, when paying money that has been taken 
 wrongly, to give your name at the same time ? " I 
 asked what he meant, and he replied, " I took thirty 
 pounds' worth of coal that did not belong to me, and 
 I feel miserable. When I try to speak for God, it 
 seems as if something choked me. I have put ten 
 pounds in the letter-box, but that didn't make me 
 any happier, and so I went and put in another ten 
 pounds. I thought I would put in another ten to 
 make it thirty, but do you think I ought to confess 
 it?" I said, "Certainly; you must be a man; you 
 must own up to it." The man did confess, and his 
 employer was so struck with it that he told his man- 
 ager they would break off a practice that was not 
 perfectly honest, because he was not quite easy in 
 his conscience. That old man, after he had done 
 his duty, shot right up into the sunlight! 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 204 
 
DAY 
 
 xm 
 
 A rough sailor once stood alone before Munkacszy's 
 great picture of " Christ before Pilate." As he looked, 
 he could not turn away, but stood there with his 
 eyes fixed on that central figure of majesty and love. 
 In a few moments he took off his hat and let it fall 
 to the floor. Then a little later he sat down and 
 picked up a book that described the picture, and 
 began to read; every few seconds his eyes would 
 turn toward the canvas and toward the figure of 
 Christ. The doorkeeper saw him lift up his hand 
 and wipe away some tears. Still he sat there— five, 
 ten, fifteen, sixty minutes— as though he could not 
 stir. At last he arose, and, coming softly and 
 reverently toward the door, he hesitated, to take 
 one last look, and said to the w^oman who sat there, 
 " Madam, I am a rough, wicked sailor. I have never 
 believed in Christ; I have never used his name, ex- 
 cept in an oath. But I have a Christian mother, who 
 begged me to-day, before I went to sea, to come and 
 look at this picture of the Christ. To oblige her I 
 have come. I did not think that anybody believed 
 in Christ; but as I have looked at that form and that 
 face I have thought that some man must have be- 
 lieved in him, and it has touched me, and I have 
 come to believe in him too." Oh, beloved, if a poor, 
 weak man, living in a godless land, could take his 
 brush and preach on canvas,- and cause our Christ 
 to glow upon it, until a rude, licentious man was 
 won to believe in him, what might not our God do 
 if he might paint Christ in us— nay, if he might re- 
 produce Christ in a human life, that the life might 
 be Christ's, and that men might come to believe on 
 him! B. Fay Mills. 
 
 205 
 
DAY 
 
 XIV 
 
 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being 
 rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all 
 saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 
 and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that 
 ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.— Eph. iii. 17-19. 
 
 Oh, may God point out more to us of the heights 
 and depths and lengths and breadths of the believer's 
 position in Christ, that we may know the love of 
 Christ, which passeth knowledge, and that we may 
 be filled with all the fullness of God! I do not know 
 what the breadth is or what the length is, but I 
 think I know what the height is. I am in Christ— 
 there is nothing higher. And I think I know what 
 the depth is; that is, Christ in me— and God knows 
 I know nothing lower. Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 If we are like Christ, there will be about us the 
 savor of his name. We are to be chosen witnesses 
 to his resurrection. Men can believe that there is 
 a God up in heaven if they can see a God dwelling 
 in our hearts. The greatest evidence of the spirit- 
 ual religion is a holy life. A m.an that will be pure 
 in the midst of impurity, that will be loving in the 
 midst of the bitter sarcasms of a cruel world, that 
 will reproduce the lowly character of the dear Sa- 
 viour in a polluted, sinful world, is the most clear 
 and irrefragable argument that God is true and 
 that his Word is true. M. E. Baldwin. 
 
 God does not ask to have us hide Christ away in 
 our impure hearts ; he wants Christ so formed in me 
 that Christ and I are one, and that the image of his 
 blessed Son may be manifest in my thoughts and 
 heart and life. Andrew Murray, 
 
 206 
 
DAY 
 
 XV 
 
 Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.— Col. iii. 3. 
 
 If this is true of me, then one thing is very clear: 
 if my life is hid with Christ, I haven't it; and if I 
 haven't it, I can't lose it. Is not that plain ? Some 
 people think they wall lose it. Blessings on his holy 
 name, no! It is hid in the safest place in all the 
 universe, is the life of a Christian. It was too dearly 
 purchased for God to leave it for us to keep. Why, 
 if he did that, the devil would soon get hold of it. 
 God gave life to Adam to keep, and how long did he 
 keep it? If he had given me my life to keep, oh, 
 what neglect there would be! I thank God that I 
 have not the keeping of it. 
 
 Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 I never saw a long-faced Christian that amounted 
 to anything. It is worse to meet such a man than 
 to face an east wind in March. What we want is 
 the spirit and confidence of the old martyr who said 
 to a king who threatened to banish him because he 
 would not give up testifying for Christ, " I am not 
 afraid of that, for you cannot banish me from where 
 Christ is." The king said, " Well, I will take away 
 your property." The man replied, "No, you can't; 
 my treasure is laid up in heaven; it is hid with Christ 
 in God." The king said hotly, " I will kill you, then." 
 "You can't do that, either; I have been dead these 
 forty years ! " exclaimed the martyr. " What are you 
 going to do with such a fanatic ? " asked the king. 
 You can't do anything with him; he has a security 
 and peace which all the kings on earth cannot dis- 
 turb. D. L. Moody. 
 
 207 
 
DAY 
 XVI 
 
 However distasteful a service may be, or however 
 disagreeable the person to whom it must be rendered, 
 God is back of it all, and loved that person well 
 enough to give his Son to die for him. Dr. Guthrie 
 was walking along the streets of Edinburgh, when 
 he overtook a little girl carrying a child much too 
 heavy for her. In a very gentle way Dr. Guthrie 
 said, " My child, the baby is too heavy for you, isn't 
 he?" With a shining face, she made quick re- 
 sponse, "No, sir; he's my brother" It makes a 
 difference that one for whom I must toil and wait, 
 whose burden I must bear, was one for whom Jesus 
 died, and thus is bound to me with the chord of 
 divine love. J. Wilbur Chapman. 
 
 Humanity loves to be loved for itself, and under 
 the ragged shirts and soiled dresses of poor outcast 
 men and women there is a heart that wants love 
 just as much as you want love, and a good deal 
 more, because they haven't had it and you have. 
 
 S. H. Hadley. 
 
 Where is the secret of power? In my college 
 days the professor of natural philosophy used to 
 exhibit his great horseshoe magnet, wound about 
 with coils of wire. He hung it up, charged the wire 
 with a galvanic current, and it caught up and held 
 four thousand pounds. He signaled to his assistant 
 to draw off the current, and the power was gone. 
 My brother, encircle your soul with faith and let 
 the divine electricity of the love of Jesus Christ 
 charge it. Then you can lift anything; you can do 
 anything that God wants you to do. Draw it off, 
 and you are a shorn Samson, a weakling. 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 208 
 
DAY 
 
 xvn 
 
 Many a man seeks to excuse himself for his sinful 
 habits by saying, '' If God wants me to be good and 
 happy, why doesn't he make me good?" We can- 
 not really be good unless we might be evil. We are 
 endowed by Almighty God with the awful but blessed 
 prerogative of free will, and God will not ignore that 
 feature of his image with which he has endowed us. 
 He would not have us serve him with a merely 
 mechanical obedience; from us he looks for a moral 
 obedience, and that involves preference. The hea- 
 venly bodies serve God with an undeviating obedi- 
 ence ; to them he has given a law which cannot be 
 broken. But the obedience of a little child in 
 some trifling matter is something infinitely higher, 
 because it is a moral act of surrender of will to 
 will. We can only become pure by choosing purity 
 when we might choose self-indulgence. We can 
 only become loving when we sacrifice ourselves in 
 one way or another for others when we might cling 
 to our own self-interest. We can only become really 
 true and brave when we stand by honor and truth 
 when we might gain some advantage by swerving 
 from truth, by compromise or concession. Temp- 
 tation is necessary for the moral development of 
 a moral being. A. C. A. Hall. 
 
 God permits temptation because it does for us 
 what the storms do for the oaks— it roots us; and 
 what the fire does for the painting on porcelain— it 
 makes us permanent. You never know that you 
 have a grip on Christ or that he has a grip on you 
 so well as when the devil is using all his force to 
 attract you from him; then you feel the pull of 
 Christ's right hand. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 209 
 
DAY 
 
 xvm 
 
 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired 
 to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed 
 for thee, that thy faith fail not.— Luke xxii. 31, 32. 
 
 And Satan was permitted to have Peter— not to 
 enter and possess him, as he did Judas, who never 
 was a child of God, but to have him in the sense of 
 being let loose upon him to tempt him and to over- 
 come him, for the humbling of Peter's pride and for 
 sifting out his self-confidence, God overruling all that 
 Satan did for Peter's spiritual good and God's own 
 glory. 
 
 Peter's experience is a type of the experience of 
 the whole church, and of the individuals of the 
 church. In each generation of its history the church 
 has been sifted by Satan. He changes from age to 
 age the agencies employed, but his malice is un- 
 changed, and the results are still the same. Perse- 
 cution at one period; prosperity at another. Truth 
 without the Holy Spirit in one age; false doctrine 
 following. Contempt from the world in this genera- 
 tion; world conformity in the next. Zeal without 
 knowledge, breaking out into fanaticism and dividing 
 the church; knowledge without zeal, ending in mate- 
 rialism and paralyzing the church. Ecclesiasticism 
 and spiritual oppression dwarfing the church; lawless 
 liberty, with no recognition of scriptural authority, 
 scattering the church. Thus the body of Christ has 
 been, and is being, sifted, and will continue to be 
 sifted unto the end. What the Holy Ghost has re- 
 corded of its early history, he has prophesied should 
 be its experience until Satan should be bound. 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 210 
 
^^r«fiM^^ ^.M^ DAY 
 
 The devil ... is a liar, and the father of it.— John viii. 44. 
 
 The great tempter of men-has two lies with which 
 he plies us at two different stages: Before we have 
 fallen he tells us that one fall does not matter; it is 
 a trifle ; w^e can easily recover ourselves again. After 
 we have fallen he tells us that it is hopeless; we are 
 given over to sin, and need not attempt to rise. 
 
 It is a terrible falsehood to say that to fall once 
 does not matter. Even by one fall there is some- 
 thing lost that can never be recovered again. It is 
 like the breaking of an infinitely precious vessel, 
 which may be mended, but will never be again as if 
 it had not been broken. Again, one fall leads to 
 others; it is like going upon very slippery ice on the 
 face of a hill; even in the attempt to rise we are 
 carried away again farther than ever. Moreover, 
 we give others a hold over us. If we have not sinned 
 alone, to have sinned once involves a tacit pledge 
 that we will sin again, and it is often almost impos- 
 sible to get out of such a false position. God keep 
 us from believing the devil's lie, that to fall once 
 does not matter. 
 
 But then, if we have fallen, Satan plies us with 
 the other lie: it is of no use to attempt to rise; you 
 cannot overcome your besetting sin. This is falser 
 still. You may rise. If we could ascend to heaven 
 to-day, and scan the ranks of the blessed, should we 
 not find multitudes among them who were once sunk 
 low as man can fall ? But they are washed, they are 
 justified, they are sanctified through the blood of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. 
 And so may we be. 
 
 James Stalker. 
 
 211 
 
DAY 
 XX 
 
 Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for 
 the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.— Rom. xiii. 14. 
 
 Self-indulgence is the besetting sin of the times; 
 but if you long to be a strong, athletic Christian, you 
 must count the cost and renounce the things of the 
 flesh. It will cost you the cutting up of some old 
 favorite sins by the roots, and the cutting loose from 
 some entangling alliances, and some sharp conflicts 
 with the tempter; it will cost you the submitting of 
 your will to the will of Christ; but you will gain more 
 than you ever gave up. 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 Every permitted sin incrusts the windows of the 
 soul and blinds our vision, and every victory over evil 
 clears the vision of the soul, so that we can see God 
 a little plainer. The unholy man could not see God 
 if he were set down in the midst of heaven; but men 
 and women whose hearts are pure see him in the very 
 commonest walks of life. 
 
 J. Wilbur Chapman. 
 
 If I have not victory over myself, I am the last man 
 to help somebody else. Appetite is very good in its 
 place, but out of its place it becomes my foe. Fire 
 is a very good friend to man if it is his servant, but 
 when it becomes his master it is his enemy. Water 
 is very good— you cannot live without it— when it 
 is under your control, but when it controls you it is 
 your ruin. The lust of the flesh will either conquer 
 me, or I must conquer lust. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 212 
 
DAY 
 XXI 
 
 Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the 
 renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and 
 acceptable, and perfect will of God.— Rom. xii. 2. 
 
 Offer yourselves to the Lord, and keep offering, 
 and you will find that you are delivered out of the 
 hand of your enemy, both the attacking enemy and 
 the seductive enemy. The world says, " Come and 
 have a little dance, a little gambling, a little pleasure. 
 We will not gamble for dollars, but let us put up a 
 few cents on a game of v/hist." AVhat we must say 
 is, " I am doing a great work, and I cannot go down. 
 I am building the walls of Jerusalem." You need 
 not ask whether it is ^^Tong to go to a ball or the 
 theater. Preach Christ, live for Christ, look for 
 Christ, and walk with Christ, and the world will very 
 soon drop you. Faith in a living Christ will keep us 
 from the world. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 You will notice that in the placid waters of a lake 
 everything which is highest in reality is lowest in the 
 reflection. The higher the trees, the lower their 
 image. That is the picture of this world; what is 
 highest in this world is lowest in the other, and what 
 is highest in that world is lowest in this. Gold is 
 on top here; they pave the streets with it there. To 
 serve is looked upon as ignoble here; there those that 
 serve reign, and the last are first. Any girl is will- 
 ing to fling away paste diamonds for the real stones; 
 when a man understands what God can be to the 
 soul, he loses his taste for things he used to care for 
 most. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 213 
 
DAY 
 
 xxn 
 
 There are two marks of a little child. One is that 
 a little child cannot help himself, but is always keep- 
 ing others occupied to serve him. What a little 
 tyrant a baby often is! The mother cannot go out; 
 there must be a servant to nurse it; it needs to be 
 cared for constantly. God made a man to care for 
 others, but the baby was made to be cared for and 
 to be helped. So there are Christians who always 
 want help. Their pastor and their Christian friends 
 must always be teaching and comforting them. 
 They go to church and to prayer-meetings and to 
 conventions, always wanting to be helped— a sign of 
 spiritual infancy. 
 
 The other sign of an infant is this : he can do noth- 
 ing to help his fellow-man. Every man is expected 
 to contribute something to the welfare of society; 
 every one has a place to fill, and a work to do; but 
 the babe can do nothing for the common weal. It 
 is just so with Christians. How little some can do! 
 They take a part in so-called work, but how little 
 sign there is that they are exercising spiritual power 
 and carrying a real blessing! 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 There are hundreds of members in our churches 
 who injure the cause of Christ every time they get 
 up to speak in meetings, because they are jealous, 
 unforgiving, and backsliding, and live too much like 
 the world. What we want in our churches are mem- 
 bers who are filled with grace and who live up to 
 what they preach. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 214 
 
DAY 
 
 xxni 
 
 A young girl who had been born blind was utterly 
 ignorant of the fact that she was blind until she was 
 eight or ten years of age. All her training had in 
 view the concealment of the fact that she was differ- 
 ent from other children, and, as she had never seen^ 
 she did not know what it was to see or not to see. 
 She used freely the language of sight with her own 
 ideas of that language. She spoke of being glad to 
 see those whom she met, and of being pleased with 
 their looks; of enjoying the sunlight and the clear 
 sky and the fine scenery after a storm had passed 
 away. So little thought had she that she was walk- 
 ing in darkness that, on one occasion, when a stranger 
 spoke out pityingly in her hearing of her misfortune, 
 she ran merrily to her parents and said, " There's a 
 little girl over there who says I am blind. I think 
 I can see as well as she can." There is a great deal 
 of such training in the world of morals. 
 
 Orientals are taught from infancy that lying to an 
 enemy, or where anything can be made by lying, is 
 a duty, and they try to attend to that duty. Ameri- 
 can Indians are taught that a man's character is best 
 rated by the scalps he can show, so they risk their 
 lives for scalps. The Dyaks of Borneo are taught 
 that skulls are worthier trophies than scalps, and 
 they " hunt heads " accordingly. Our fathers were 
 taught that human slavery was a divine institution, 
 and that rum was to be swallowed gratefully as a 
 " gift of God," and they lived up to those teachings. 
 How can men's consciences discern truth from 
 error on points where their instruction from the 
 beginning has been as much at fault as in these in- 
 stances? We all are sadly in need of being taught 
 of God. Henry Clay Trumbull. 
 
 215 
 
DAY 
 XXIV 
 
 There are many Christians who seem to think, 
 " How little can I do, and yet keep up a respectable 
 appearance in the community, and finally be saved? " 
 Perhaps some one of you says, '' Well, I hope I was 
 converted several years ago. I joined the church, I 
 come to the sacrament, I never brought any scandal 
 on religion— never; I lead a respectable life. If, at 
 the last, saved by grace, I can get through the door 
 into heaven, I shall be satisfied." Do you think you 
 will? No! you never vrill he— never! If, by the 
 grace of God, you are, as the saying goes, "saved 
 by the skin of your teeth," and once get inside of the 
 pearly gates, and look up and see Paul and all the 
 apostles and martyrs and prophets and evangelists, 
 Luther and Calvin and the Wesleys and Spurgeon, 
 and all that glorious array; and not only these, but 
 some poor, hard-working washerwoman that, at the 
 end of a day's toil, dragged herself away to a prayer- 
 meeting, and at the end of the week carried her little 
 pile of rags to a mission school— when you look at 
 these, you will be so ashamed of yourself that you 
 will ask God to let you come back and work out your 
 salvation. Satisfied? God have mercy on any one 
 who is satisfied with himself or herself! May the 
 Holy Spirit give us all a holy dissatisfaction with our 
 condition, and a desire to rise and go forward. 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 If you do not indulge in godly sorrow, is it not 
 likely you are losing a good deal of sanctification? 
 Have we nothing to repent of? No wasted hours? 
 How little we have done for God! Ah, that we had 
 prayed more! 
 
 Andrew Bonar. 
 
 216 
 
DAY 
 XXV 
 
 Archbishop Ussher, in his declining years, had a 
 room built -s^ith windows facing the east, south, and 
 west, so that he could warm himself by the rays of 
 the sun. In the morning he stationed himself at the 
 east window, at noon at the south -vsindow, and in the 
 evening at the west window, where he could watch 
 the setting of the sun. The west window w^as at 
 that time symbolical of the setting of his sun of life. 
 But sunrise follows the setting of the sun, and the 
 sunset of life is the sunrise of immortality. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 What was the outlook for the child of God? Ask 
 Paul as he sits in the Mamertine prison, a deep 
 dungeon with only a ray of light. He stood or lay 
 there for three years, most of the time with a chain 
 on his hand and a soldier w^atching by his side. I 
 notice that his face glows with rapture, and, as he 
 wTites, his pen almost catches fire in the speed of its 
 flight. ''Blessed apostle, w^hat of the outcome?" 
 "That is just w'hat I am writing: 'I have fought 
 the good fight, I have finished my course, my depar- 
 ture is at hand: henceforth a crowm.' " " Is that all 
 you see— a crown? For I see a man w^aiting with 
 a sword just outside the city gate to take off your 
 head. Do you hear anything in particular, Paul? 
 For I hear the crunching of bones and groans in 
 that den of beasts." " Since you speak of it, I do 
 hear the w^elcome of innumerable harpers, harping to 
 welcome me home." That was the salvation which 
 Paul had, and in the joy and light of which he stead- 
 ily lived, and which, in God's name, I commend to you. 
 
 Cyrus D. Foss. 
 
 217 
 
DAY 
 XXVI 
 
 Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath 
 brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.— 2 Tim. 
 1.10. 
 
 How can Christ have abolished death ? Christians 
 die as really as others. We know of but two per- 
 sons of all the race of Adam who have been ex- 
 empted from dying. 
 
 The English Parliament decreed, August 1, 1836, to 
 abolish slavery in the West Indies, but the decree did 
 not go into effect until one year later. During that 
 year the slave was still under the whip of his master, 
 and all went on as in the old slavery days. But on 
 July 31, 1837, twenty thousand slaves met together 
 in Jamaica. They put on white robes, and at eleven 
 o'clock they knelt down and waited for one hour with 
 upturned faces. When the clock struck twelve these 
 white-robed slaves rose up and shouted, " We are 
 free! we are free!" Slavery was abolished by en- 
 actment a year before, but now it was abolished in 
 fact. In Revelation vi. 9, 10, we read, " I saw un- 
 derneath the altar the souls of them that had been 
 slain for the Word of God : . . . and they cried with a 
 great voice, saying. How long, Master, the holy and 
 true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on 
 them that dwell on the earth ? " They wanted the 
 resurrection bodies. They were tired of waiting, 
 though they were in Paradise beholding his face in 
 glory. " And white robes were given unto every one 
 of them; and it was said unto them, that they should 
 rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants 
 also and their brethren, that should be killed as 
 they were, should be fulfilled." ye martyrs, be 
 not impatient; there is another company of martyrs 
 coming on; wait for them! A. J. Gordon. 
 
 218 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvn 
 
 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his 
 God, and he shall be my son. — Rev. xxi. 7. 
 
 Perhaps you didn't know that I was a millionaire. 
 I don't know how many millions I own. They say 
 the Rothschilds can't tell within millions how much 
 they are worth. That is just my condition. All the 
 wealth of this world and all the planets— everything 
 —is mine; I am joint-heir with Jesus Christ. Find 
 out what Jesus Christ is worth, and I will tell you 
 what I am worth. *'He that overcometh shall in- 
 herit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall 
 be my son." Think of that— the son of God! 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 Battles are not won by lectures on gunpowder. It 
 is no holiday work to which we are called, no dress- 
 parade service. It cost the Son of God his life to 
 witness for his Father here in this sinful world, and 
 he says, " Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and 
 come after me, cannot be my disciple." Spirit-filled 
 men and women have always been, and always will 
 be, cross-bearing men and women. When Paul was 
 called to service, he was told of a great work which 
 God would do through him, and there was added to 
 the message, '' I will show him how great things he 
 must suffer for my name's sake." Before Stephen 
 received his crown he had to bear the cross. We 
 are quite willing to share his crown, but how about 
 his cross? D. W. Whittle. 
 
 You must take possession of Christ for salvation, 
 but to win a crown Christ must take possession of 
 you. H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 219 
 
DAY 
 
 XX vm 
 
 There are resources at God's command which men 
 nowadays seldom take into account. One can hardly 
 speak in the nineteenth century about angels, we 
 have become so materialistic— we have got so "ad- 
 vanced." ''Oh, supernatural stories!" Men come 
 to us with hypocritical faces and say, " If you would 
 suppress all this about angels and heavenly powers, 
 and interference with the natural order of things, 
 and reduce your Book to what undoubtedly is in it, 
 a very valuable collection of ethical maxims, well, 
 then we might accept it." Thank you, sir, for noth- 
 ing. If we could take all the bones out of it, what 
 a beautiful jellyfish it would be! No; we keep in the 
 miraculous; it is the very strength and mainstay of 
 revelation; it is all miraculous. The angels are here 
 still, although we do not see them. Although they 
 do not come into actual contact with us, and with 
 gracious violence smite our sides, and wake us up, 
 and lead us forth past all peril into safety, still un- 
 seen they stand about us, and still God has a thou- 
 sand thousand resources at his hand for the marvel- 
 ous preservation of his people. " We are immortal 
 till our work is done." 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 God does not work miracles, and God does not send 
 angels to do that for which he has already provided 
 means. He will not send his angel to snatch us from 
 some temptation into which we deliberately run any 
 more than he will send his angel to avert the pesti- 
 lence or the scarlet fever if we neglect to keep our 
 sanitary conditions pure. 
 
 A. C. A. Hall. 
 220 
 
DAY 
 XXIX 
 
 It is not enough that we shall know what the 
 Bible says, but we want to know that the Bible has 
 a right to be respected when it speaks; we want to 
 know how it came into existence, and by what right 
 it holds its present position in our thought. Of 
 course apostolic Christianity has been supernatural 
 Christianity, and prayer-meeting Christianity has 
 been supernatural Christianity, and ecclesiastical 
 Christianity has been supernatural Christianity, and 
 martyr Christianity has been supernatural Chris- 
 tianity; and the Christianity that is robbed of its 
 supernaturalness \vill be a Christianity for which the 
 world will have very little use after a short time. 
 The question which men are raising, therefore, in- 
 volves the inquiry whether the Christian world has 
 been the victim of a great delusion. 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 If apostolic Christianity were to die, it would have 
 died long ago. It has had many good chances to 
 die— better chances than it will ever have again. It 
 would have been bound to the stake with the early 
 martyrs, have expired in their ashes, and have been 
 entombed in the graves of her first and last apostles. 
 But "all true work," as Carlyle has said, "hang 
 the author of it on w^hat gibbet you like, must and 
 will accomplish itself." 
 
 L. T. TOWNSEND. 
 
 Religion is not a strange or added thing, but 
 the inspiration of the secular life, the breathing of 
 an eternal spirit through this temporal world. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 221 
 
DAY 
 XXX 
 
 People read infidel books and wonder why they 
 are unbelievers. Why do they read such books? 
 They say that to form an unprejudiced opinion 
 they must read both sides. If a book is a lie, how 
 can it be one side? Infidel books are not one side. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 Agnosticism is simply not believing; it is denial, 
 negation, darkness. There is only one cure for dark- 
 ness, and that is coming to the light. If you will 
 persist in putting your eyes out or in barring God's 
 daylight out, there is no help for you; you must die 
 in the dark. Sin has made your soul sick, and if you 
 will not even try Christ's medicine, then the blood- 
 poisoning of infidelity will run its fatal course. 
 Neither skepticism nor agnosticism ever won a vic- 
 tory, ever slew a sin, ever healed a heartache, ever 
 produced a ray of sunshine, ever saved an immortal 
 soul. Unbelief is foredoomed to defeat; do not risk 
 your eternity on that spider's web. 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 The torrent of the love of God is pouring into 
 your human nature, and there is an incarnation 
 begun in your home by the love of God. You know 
 that God is love when you begin to live a life of love. 
 But, on the other hand, I often find that people who 
 doubt that the nature of God is love are the people 
 who are unmerciful, untender, austere, and harsh. 
 Men throw on God the hues of their own characters. 
 Oh, that God may make us godlike, that we may 
 know God! 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 222 
 
DAY 
 XXXI 
 
 God has made us with two eyes, both intended to 
 be used so as to see one object. Binocular vision is 
 the perfection of sight. There is a corresponding 
 truth in the spiritual sphere. We have two faculties 
 for the apprehension of spiritual truth— reasoTi and 
 faith; the former intellectual, the latter largely in- 
 tuitive, emotional. Reason asks, How? wherefore? 
 Faith accepts testimony and rests upon the person 
 who bears witness. 
 
 Now reason and faith often seem in conflict, but 
 are not. Reason prepares the way for faith, and 
 then both act jointly. We are not called to exercise 
 blind faith, but to be ready always to give answer to 
 every man who asks a reason. 
 
 There are three questions which belong to reason 
 to answer: First, is the Bible the Book of God? 
 Second, what does it teach? Third, what relation 
 has its teaching to my duty? When these are 
 settled, faith accepts the Word as authoritative, and 
 no longer stumbles at its mysteries, but, rather, ex- 
 pects that God's thoughts will be above our thoughts. 
 Thus, where reason's province ends faith's begins. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 Verily, theology without the Holy Ghost is poison; 
 there have been more men ruined by handling the 
 deep things of God without the Spirit of God to help 
 them than by any other process that I am aware of. 
 The light is made for the eye; but if the eye is 
 diseased, the light becomes intolerably painful; it 
 torments the eye. So the truth is made for the soul ; 
 but if our soul is unsanctified, that which ought to 
 come to it as its own native air hurts, injures, 
 destroys. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 223 
 
Take time to be holy, 
 
 Speak oft with thy Lord; 
 Abide in him always, 
 
 And feed on his Word; 
 Make friends of God's children, 
 
 Help those who are weak, 
 Forgetting in nothing 
 
 His blessing to seek. 
 
 Take time to be holy. 
 
 The world rushes on; 
 Spend much time in secret 
 
 With Jesus alone; 
 By looking to Jesus, 
 
 Like him thou shalt be; 
 Thy friends in thy conduct 
 
 His likeness shall see. 
 
 Take time to be holy, 
 
 Let him be thy Guide, 
 And run not before him, 
 
 Whatever betide; 
 In joy or in sorrow. 
 
 Still follow thy Lord, 
 And, looking to Jesus, 
 
 Still trust in his word. 
 
 Take time to be holy. 
 
 Be calm in thy soul, 
 Each thought and each motive 
 
 Beneath his control; 
 Thus led by his Spirit 
 
 To fountains of love. 
 Thou soon shalt be fitted 
 
 For service above. 
 
 W. D. LONGSTAFF. 
 224 
 
[Month of zA II gust 
 
 (Maidenhair Fern 
 H. IV. IVibb-Teploe The Aiiditonum 
 
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in 
 heaven is perfect.— Matt. v. 48. 
 
 A man is called into existence to enjoy fellowship 
 and union ^vith God; to know God until he becomes 
 in some sense the representative of God. Should 
 there, then, not always be present to man's mind this 
 one thought: " I am created for God; I am to repre- 
 sent God to the things below me; I am to walk in 
 oneness with God; the ambition of my soul is so to 
 be the very reflector of God that I become one with 
 him, and yet remain a creature to the end of eter- 
 nity"? If that be the standard it is e\ident that 
 something must be done to meet man's present cir- 
 cumstances and to bring them into accord ^vith what 
 God requires, which is nothing less than perfection. 
 Our holiness is the extent to v/hich we carry out that 
 perfection. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 Many souls are being exercised about holiness, 
 but not equally about righteousness. Holiness is 
 the hidden thing we cannot see; righteousness is 
 the manifestation of holiness in act and life. 
 
 Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 It is the law of influence that we become like those 
 whom we habitually admire. . . . Through all the 
 range of literature, of history, and of biography this 
 law presides. Men are all mosaics of other men. 
 There was a savor of David about Jonathan, and a 
 savor of Jonathan about David. Jean Valjean, in 
 the masterpiece of Victor Hugo, is Bishop Bienvenu 
 risen from the dead. Metempsychosis is a fact. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 225 
 
DAY 
 
 n 
 
 Difficulties are the parents of all progress. Things 
 " hard to be understood " is the price paid for all 
 \Yisdom. A religion without difficulties never came 
 from the Author of nature. For the last three thou- 
 sand years no pagan worship has contained anything 
 '' hard to be understood." The regions of the dead 
 have made as much mental progress as the genera- 
 tions of the living. Twenty-five hundred years be- 
 fore Christ China made gunpowder, and yet has gone 
 no further than to blaze it away in fire-crackers. 
 Two thousand years before the Christian era she had 
 the magnet, and yet a Chinese junk never crossed 
 the ocean unless she v^^as towed by a Christian ship. 
 Show us one step in mental or moral progress for 
 two thousand years outside of where the Bible cir- 
 culates. It contains the germs of all natural and 
 scientific progress. 
 
 I. D. Driver. 
 
 There are certain immutable elements in the primi- 
 tive Christian faith, as there are in nature, which 
 never have changed, and never can change, and 
 which will never outgrow the passions and loves of 
 the human soul. The beauty of a mild sunset, the 
 sublimity of a midnight heaven, the dazzle of light- 
 nings playing across the sky, the repose and beauty 
 of a lily clad in raiment surpassing that of any pres- 
 ent or future Solomon in all his glory, will not be out- 
 grown, though society should exist in a state of con- 
 stant progress for ten thousand years. 
 
 L. T. TOWNSEND. 
 
DAY 
 
 m 
 
 It is sometimes said to us, in the name of science, 
 " Let us distribute the territory in which science and 
 religion claim undivided interests. You religious 
 people may take your part, and we scientific people 
 will take our share. We will be generous with you : 
 we will let you have the unexplored dark continent 
 of don't-knowdom, and we will keep the little island 
 of ascertained fact." But Christian apologists very 
 properly decline the offer. They say, ''We are 
 going to take possession of the entire continent of 
 thought, in the name of the Father and of the Son 
 and of the Holy Ghost." Let us understand it; reli- 
 gion is not afraid; she does not ask for any specific 
 arithmetic or grammar or exceptional canons of 
 evidence; all she needs, as Chief Justice Gibson 
 once said, is a common-law trial and a fair jury. 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 Paul was a great man of logic. He was a wonder- 
 ful man to argue. This is true, but never, never 
 think of the great apostle as one of those poor ped- 
 dling creatures called " logicians." Logic is a very 
 shriveling science when there is nothing but itself. 
 Never dream of Paul as being simply one of your 
 argumentative, dry logicians. Paul was a volcano 
 in a perpetual state of activity. Logic? Aye; but 
 logic set on fire with love to Christ and with love to 
 the souls of men. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 227 
 
DAY 
 IV 
 
 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 
 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.— Eph. v. 15, 16. 
 
 The words, '' redeeming the time," are not fairly- 
 translated. They mean " buying up the opportunity." 
 Be on the lookout for opportunities. The saddest 
 part of our record, I fear, is that we have let precious 
 opportunities flow by us, never to be recalled. Think 
 of the opportunities you have had to say a word to 
 an impenitent soul, or some word of comfort to a 
 friend, or to testify for Christ. The specter I most 
 fear is the ghost of lost opportunities. Be on the 
 lookout for opportunities, and you will never know 
 just what blessing is going to burst on you. A poor 
 itinerant Methodist minister went to Colchester to 
 preach. It was a cold day, and he found only fifteen 
 or twenty people in that primitive little chapel. He 
 went up into the pulpit and took for his text, " Look 
 unto me, and be ye saved." The whole sermon was 
 only a repetition of the one thought, look to Christ. 
 " A young lad up in the gallery looks very sad. He 
 will never get any comfort until he looks to Christ." 
 Heaven knows who that boy in the gallery was; the 
 world knows; but from that day Charles H. Spurgeon 
 never saw that preacher again. He went his way. 
 He did his work. Spurgeon has already met him in 
 heaven, I doubt not. Oh, would not life be worth liv- 
 ing if a stray shot of ours should bring a Spurgeon 
 to the Saviour ? Who knows! Who knows! If you 
 have consecrated yourself to the work of lifting up 
 the Saviour, how do you know who is to look to him 
 and be saved? 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 228 
 
DAY 
 
 V 
 
 Lord, increase our faith.— Luke xvii. 5. 
 
 All faith which has Christ for its object is the 
 right kind of faith. 
 
 If you want your faith to grow there are four 
 rules that you must adopt: First, be willing to have 
 a great faith. When men say they cannot believe, 
 ask, "Are you willing to believe?" because if the 
 will is toward faith the Holy Ghost will produce a 
 great faith. Second, use the faith you have; the 
 child's arm, with its slender muscles, will not be 
 able to wield the sledge-hammer unless he begins 
 step by step to use it. Do not, therefore, stand on 
 the boat's edge and wait to be able to swim a mile, 
 but throw yourself out from its side into the water 
 and swim a yard or two; for it is in these smaller 
 efforts that you are to be prepared for the greater 
 and mightier exploits. Third, be sure to put God 
 between yourself and circumstances. Everything 
 depends on w^here you put God. There are three 
 matters to consider in the case— yourself, your owti 
 position, and God's position and the position of the 
 circumstances with wiiich you have to deal. Most 
 men put circumstances betw^een themselves and God 
 so much that they can hardly see God at all, or if 
 they do see him it is like looking at a landscape 
 through a reversed telescope, w^hich makes it seem 
 at a great distance. But there are other wiser and 
 happier souls who put God between themselves and 
 circumstances, and at once, when one looks out 
 through God upon circumstances, that which before 
 had almost paralyzed him becomes infinitesimal and 
 unw^orthy of his dread. Fourth, live a life of daily 
 obedience to God's will. Observe these rules and 
 your faith will grow. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 229 
 
DAY 
 VI 
 
 Many there be who say of my soul, There is no help for him 
 in God.— Ps. iii. 2. 
 
 That is the last and deadliest arrow in Satan's 
 quiver; when that thought comes then the old guard 
 of hell has burst upon your soul. That shot goes 
 home all the more, proves itself to be all the more 
 deadly, if there is something in your own heart that 
 only too sadly inclines to say the same thing as the 
 voices from without. But wait a minute and think 
 of it. What an awful silence comes into one's heart! 
 What a midnight this day would be if it were true! 
 But it is not. David does not argue; he ignores it 
 and goes on, " But thou, Lord, art a shield for me; 
 my glory, and the lifter up of mine head." There is 
 no use trying to argue down some thoughts and 
 temptations. If this desertion and abandonment by 
 God is true then hell has come. There is no time to 
 argue ; I must instantly destroy it. So David meets 
 a very positive statement by another equally positive. 
 When any thought comes to you and says, " There 
 is no help for you even in God," that messenger has 
 shown the cloven hoof. He has not only done it, but 
 he has overdone it. It is not true. Then let these 
 voices be the voices of so many liars unto you. 
 When they say, " There is no help in Absalom," quite 
 right; when they say, " Ahithophel has turned treach- 
 erous," I do not doubt it; "Shimei is cursing you," 
 perfectly true; when they say, "You are an old 
 hypocrite," quite right; but when they say, "God 
 has cast you off," get thee behind me, Satan! Liar! 
 Worse than I am is the voice that would dare to 
 speak against the faithfulness of my Redeemer, God. 
 " He abideth faithful." John McNeill. 
 
 230 
 
DAY 
 
 vn 
 
 Who is among you . . . that walketh in darkness, and hath no 
 light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his 
 God.— Isa. 1. 10. 
 
 If we can put our trust in God when we are in 
 total darkness, when may we not trust him? Some- 
 times we are called upon to trust in God when he 
 seems to go right back against all his promises. 
 That is trusting him in the darkness. Weak faith 
 will judge God's promises by one's feelings, by one's 
 evidences, when we ought to judge the feelings and 
 the evidences by the promises. As long as I have 
 the promises, God give me grace to trust in him, 
 whatever befall, and bid my soul keep still, knowing 
 that he will never fail. 
 
 Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 Faith is the soul's organ of vision and hearing and 
 touch. By faith we behold and hear and take hold 
 on God. Hence the reality and power of all com- 
 munion with God depend on how far we believe his 
 own word of promise. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 I use my Bible as I use my check-book in the bank, 
 only with this difference: I have to tear a leaf out 
 every time I cash a check, and can't use it a second 
 time; but in taking from this book I can leave the 
 leaf in and use it again and again. It is a sort of 
 circulating letter; you never come to the end of it. 
 
 J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 231 
 
DAY 
 
 vm 
 
 Going through the magnificent Rocky Mountain 
 scenery some time ago, we plunged into the Royal 
 Gorge, and later s\vung into the Grand Canon, and 
 it seemed to me that scenery more sublime could not 
 be found in all the world. If I had never been im- 
 pressed before with the existence of God, I should 
 have cried out unto him in the midst of those moun- 
 tain-peaks. Every one in the car, with one single 
 exception, was gazing in rapt admiration. This one 
 woman was intently reading a book, and did not lift 
 her eyes once from the printed page while we were 
 passing through that wonderful scenery. When we 
 had swomg out into the great table-land I overheard 
 her say to a friend, " This is the thirteenth time I 
 have crossed the mountains. The first time I could 
 not keep the tears from rolling dowm my cheeks, so 
 impressed was I; but now I know it so well that I fre- 
 quently go through the whole range with scarcely a 
 glance cast out the window." It is thus, alas! that 
 we too often read God's Word ; that which furnishes 
 the angels a theme for never-ending praise w^e read 
 with indifference, or fail to read at all. 
 
 J. Wilbur Chapman. 
 
 When people have lost all enjoyment in the Word 
 of God, this is no reason why they should relinquish 
 its study. They may lose all enjojmient in their 
 morning ablutions, but that is no reason why they 
 should not bathe. A man should go on reading 
 because of the almost unconscious effect the Bible 
 may have upon his inner life, and because he may 
 thereby learn to love it. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 232 
 
DAY 
 IX 
 
 If we want to live more than ordinary spiritual 
 lives as Christian men, it is necessary that we be 
 great feeders upon the Word of God, which is not 
 only quick, but powerful. De Quincey divided all 
 literature into the literature of knowledge and the 
 literature of power; this is preeminently the litera- 
 ture of power. " If ye abide in me, and my words 
 abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be 
 done unto you." And still further, we might make 
 this additional statement: that without spiritual 
 Bible study other spiritual helps may often lead us 
 in danger, and ultimiately they may be abandoned. 
 Take the matter of meditation; without the Bible 
 meditation may lead a man to morbid introspection. 
 Secret prayer is not a monologue, but is a dialogue. 
 
 John R. Mott. 
 
 The study of Christ in the Old Testament is ex- 
 ceedingly profitable. In Genesis he is described as 
 the seed of the woman; in Exodus as the " Passover 
 lamb"; in Leviticus the high priest; in Numbers 
 the smitten rock and the uplifted serpent; and in 
 Deuteronomy the person of Moses. All of these 
 typify and set forth the person and work of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. The Psalm.s also are full of references 
 to him. All the prophets, either in type or in pre- 
 diction, " testified beforehand of his sufferings, and 
 the glory that should follow." The gospels record 
 his life, death, resurrection, and ascension; the Acts 
 the establishment of his church; the epistles the de- 
 velopment of his doctrines; and the Apocalypse the 
 revelation of his coming glory. The great work of 
 the Holy Spirit is to testify. W. W. Clark. 
 
 233 
 
DAY 
 X 
 
 1^19^^ 
 
 The bane of humanity is bad heredity. We cannot 
 get rid of it. " The fathers have eaten s'^ur grapes, 
 and the children's teeth are set on edge," say the 
 Scriptures. The fathers have drunk the cup of sin- 
 ful pleasure, and the children have drunk the dregs. 
 The wondrous thing about the gospel is that it gives 
 us a new heredity. I count that the very highest 
 and sublimest statement of the doctrine of regenera- 
 tion. A man grafting trees saws off a limb to put in 
 the scion. If the limb is rotten he has to saw it off 
 nearer to the trunk. We were grafted in Adam, but 
 it was discovered that the branch was rotten, and 
 then God began at the very beginning, and grafted 
 us into Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God. Dr. 
 Williams, of Boston, was asked, " How early do you 
 think the training of a child ought to begin?" He 
 replied instantly, " A hundred years before the child's 
 birth." When God would build up a child holy in all 
 things he goes back to the very beginning and gives 
 us our birth in God himself: "Which were born, 
 not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the 
 will of man, but of God." The river of life has its 
 sources in the very throne of God, and when we get 
 that life we have something in us which tends to 
 make us do well instead of doing ill. As from Adam 
 we had this hereditary tendency to do wrong, so when 
 we are grafted into Jesus Christ, and given the eter- 
 nal life, we have that influence impelling us to holi- 
 ness: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit 
 sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, 
 because he is born of God." 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 234 
 
DAY 
 XI 
 
 A call to be a disciple is one thing, and a call to 
 be a clergyman is another. A good many people 
 make a mistake because they haven't made that dis- 
 tinction. Peter, James, and John were called to be 
 disciples. They wouldn't have left their nets and 
 their fishing-smacks and followed Christ if they had 
 not been called. Afterward they were called to be 
 apostles. I believe no man ought to go into the min- 
 istry unless he is forced into it by the Spirit of God. 
 Many men nowadays think if they can't do anything 
 else they will turn their hand to the ministry. They 
 might better be hammering iron, or making clothes, 
 or sowing wheat. I'd rather plow or saw wood than 
 be in a work to which God hadn't sent me. If a man 
 runs before he is sent he will be a miserable failure ; 
 he'll break down. But if a man waits till he gets 
 his commission he is going to bear good testimony, 
 and God will bless his testimony. One way to tell 
 whether you have been called is to look at the results 
 of your work. If you preach because you can't help 
 it, and your whole soul is in it, and souls are won to 
 Christ, that is a pretty good sign that you have been 
 called of God. 
 
 D. L. MooDT. 
 
 If you desire to know God's will first pray to him 
 for guidance. The man who neglects this sins. But 
 no less is it important to use all the facts within our 
 reach, and our faculties of judgment and decision, 
 and then our full power of locomotion. 
 
 John N. Forman. 
 
DAY 
 
 xn 
 
 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, 
 always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand 
 perfect and complete in all the will of God.— Col. iv. 12. 
 
 The prayer of Epaphras for the Colossians should 
 be our prayer for ourselves and others. We do 
 sometimes bow down and say, " Thy will be done." 
 Men put up the whites of their eyes and roll their 
 heads about as if with agony at the thought that the 
 will of God is to be done. One would think the will 
 of God was the most terrible infliction that the Al- 
 mighty could lay upon his creatures. But the will 
 of God is the joy of Christ Jesus. It is the one joy 
 of a sanctified soul that it is permitted and enabled 
 to do the will of God; so that when a person prays 
 for me that I may "stand perfect and complete in all 
 the will of God," it is the most blessed prayer that 
 can be offered for me. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 Our first parents forfeited Eden by their disobe- 
 dience, and Christ, the second Adam, takes up the 
 battle in the wilderness and fights his way back to 
 Paradise. We have to do the same. We have for- 
 feited our Eden of innocence and peace with God by 
 disobedience to some higher law. We have lost our 
 Eden, and we find ourselves in the wilderness, and 
 we have got to take up the battle and, under Christ's 
 leadership and reljing on his sympathy and help, to 
 fight our way back again to Paradise. " To him that 
 overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which 
 is in the midst of the Paradise of God." 
 
 A. C. A. Hall. 
 
 236 
 
DAY 
 
 xm 
 
 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgive- 
 ness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.— Eph. i. 7. 
 
 There is the riches of God's grace. Ephesians i. 
 18 tells us of the riches of his glory: "The eyes of 
 your understanding being enlightened; that ye may 
 know what is the hope of his calling, and what the 
 riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." 
 What is the riches of his glory? It is unfolded 
 further on, in Ephesians iii. 16: "That he would 
 grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to 
 be strengthened mth might by his Spirit in the inner 
 man." Contrast these two things, and you find this: 
 the riches of his grace is that which we get from 
 the cross; the riches of his glory is that which we 
 get from the throne. Forgiveness is of grace; the 
 enduement of the Spirit is of glory. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 There are different ways of coming to fortune. 
 You may inherit it, or you may achieve it, or you 
 may come to it as Ruth did. Like her, although at 
 first only a poor gleaner, you may marry the Laird! 
 And that is the only way to true possession. Faith 
 marries us to the Lord of all. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 Gleaning is a poor trade; it is hard work, with 
 comparatively little result. There are so many 
 Christians who have never been taught anything 
 better than to go into the field and labor hard and 
 carry away as much as they could carry. But that 
 never makes a home, that never makes full provision. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 237 
 
DAY 
 
 XIV 
 
 The one lesson that God has taught me, if he ever 
 
 has taught me anything in connection with the grace 
 of God, is that there is such a thing as a divine plan 
 in a man's life, and that the only wisdom in this world 
 is to find out what that plan is, and to be led into it 
 step by step, and not to mind what is the end of it. 
 There is much said about the divine call, little said 
 about the end of it. Why? Because no tongue, not 
 even the divine tongue, will attempt to tell what is 
 the outcome of a life that is led of God. Even the 
 Bible, with all its majesty and divinity, does not un- 
 dertake to tell how great that life is which takes its 
 way into the life of God; it only gives a clue by which 
 we can find the way step by step. 
 
 Only two patterns are possible. The Bible does 
 not present a third. Every man must live the life 
 of Cain, the first rejecter of the gospel, or the life 
 of Abel, the first believer. Cain was the first unbe- 
 liever. He rejected God's testimony, and murder was 
 incidental to it. It was the fruit, not the root. A 
 man must live the life of Jacob, the supplanter, or 
 of Israel, the prince of God. He must live the life of 
 Saul, the persecutor of the church and of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ himself, or the life of Paul, apostolic in 
 its tone and spirit and temper and outcome. He 
 must live the life of the old man, or the life of the 
 new man. 
 
 H. C. Mabie. 
 
 Where a foundation has been laid anybody can 
 build, but only God can build on nothing. 
 
 A. J. Gordon, 
 
DAY 
 XV 
 
 A dear companion of mine, for three years a true 
 yoke-fellow in evangelistic work, one extremely cold 
 winter evening, as he joined me in a railway-train 
 to take his last journey on earth in the service of 
 his Master, said pleasantly, " I got a good illustration 
 from the man at the gate as I came on to the train. 
 It is very cold, and every one was grumbling, and 
 some abusing him as he made them all get their 
 tickets out and show them before they could get past. 
 I said to him, ' You don't seem to be very popular 
 around here.' * If I am popular with the man that 
 put me here it is all that I want,' was his reply. 
 Ah," said this dear friend, " if we could go through 
 this world keeping the same thought toward Christ, 
 what a straight path we should make!" May this 
 be our ambition, the only ambition the gospel enjoins. 
 " Wherefore also we are ambitious, whether at home 
 or absent, to be well pleasing unto him." 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 What we want to-day is men of one idea. Men 
 said that Paul was a narrow-minded man, a man of 
 one idea. If you have one idea that covers every- 
 thing—the one idea of Christ crucified— you can 
 afford to be called fanatical. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 There is no vital connection between merely hav- 
 ing the ideal and being conformed to it. Thousands 
 admire Christ who never become Christians. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 239 
 
DAY 
 XVI 
 
 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.— Rom. 
 xii. 21. 
 
 Simple resistance is not enough; we need to be 
 aggressive, not defensive only. To stand against 
 evil is a great thing, but to compel evil to withdraw 
 before us and drive it away is greater. He who is 
 not overcome is not conquered, but he who overcomes 
 is a conqueror. In one case he is not defeated; in 
 the other case his foe is defeated and driven from the 
 field. If the former is conquest the latter is more 
 than conquest. And the secret of it is not to stand 
 on the defensive, but in the power of the truth and 
 goodness carry on the war in the confidence of faith, 
 with the sword of the Spirit, in the power of prayer. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 The Bible is positive and negative ; it requires and 
 forbids ; it points out evils and prescribes the remedies. 
 Some say that the way to destroy evil is to proclaim 
 the good. God does not do this. It is necessary 
 both to root out the evil and to establish the good. 
 God commands us not to profane his name, not to 
 steal, or kill, or commit adultery, and then gives 
 positive commands to honor our fathers and mothers, 
 to remember the Sabbath, and to love God and man. 
 No farmer is fool enough to try to kill weeds by 
 planting good corn. He relies upon the plow and 
 the hoe. No brier patch was ever brought into sub- 
 jection by sowing good wheat upon it. Evil must 
 be eradicated and good must be implanted. 
 
 Charles A. Blanchard. 
 
 Every time we overcome one temptation we gain 
 strength to overcome another. 
 
 D. L. Moody 
 
 240 
 
DAY 
 
 xvn 
 
 Fight the good fight of faith.— 1 Tim. vi. 12. 
 
 The fight of faith is a " good fight " because it is 
 for the best objects; it insures a clean heart, a pure 
 conscience, and God's approval. It is a good fight 
 because God supplies us with weapons. It is a win- 
 ning fight because the omnipotent Christ takes us 
 into his own keeping, and neither man nor devils can 
 pluck us out of his hand. When the Son of God is 
 conquered we will be conquered, and not before. 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 A merchant in Glasgow used to preach wherever 
 he thought he could do good. One day he was talk- 
 ing about Shamgar. " Over the hill," he said, " there 
 came a man. He came near Shamgar and said, 
 ' Shamgar, Shamgar, run for your life ! Six hundred 
 Philistines are coming over the hill after you.' But 
 Shamgar said, 'They are four hundred short. I'll 
 take care of them.' He believed in Scripture, you 
 see— that one should chase a thousand." 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 Never dare to fight God's battles with the devil's 
 weapons, whatever they may be, and never dare do 
 evil that good may come. The end never justifies 
 the means. Never compromise with the world's 
 laxity, and never snatch in your own way at what 
 God will give you with a blessing in his own way. 
 
 A. C. A. Hall. 
 
 241 
 
DAY 
 
 xvni 
 
 «^M^ 
 
 How can we get spiritual power? We cannot get 
 it. No man ever possessed it; no man ever owned 
 it; no man ever used it. It is a question, not of our 
 getting power, but of God getting us; not of our using 
 God, but of God using us. The disciples were not 
 told to pray for power nor to seek for power. They 
 were told to wait for the Holy Ghost. A wind always 
 blows toward a vacuum. In that upper chamber the 
 disciples were being emptied and a vacuum was 
 being made. The son of thunder was emptied of the 
 thunder that he might be filled with love. The 
 doubting Thomas was emptied of his doubt that he 
 might be filled with light. Peter was emptied of his 
 presumption and his fickleness that he might be filled 
 with all the power of God. Then there came the 
 sound as of a mighty rushing wind, and God came 
 upon them and used them. 
 
 A great mesmerist told me that the one qualifica- 
 tion under which he could mesmerize people was that 
 they should have vacant minds. If a man might pour 
 his mind into the vacant mind of another creature 
 until he should think his thought and do his will, 
 what might not God do if only he could have vacant 
 spirits into which he could pour himself? The great 
 condition of power is to be emptied of self and to be 
 filled with God; to renounce self and to appropriate 
 God; to be dead unto self, but to be alive unto God 
 by the power of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 B. Fay Mills. 
 
 If the incense of prayer is rising steadily and fer- 
 vently from our souls, the Spirit of God will blow 
 upon us stronger and stronger. 
 
 W. W. Moore. 
 
 242 
 
DAY 
 XIX 
 
 What saves men? Not the blood of Christ alone, 
 not the gospel message alone, not the work of the 
 Holy Ghost alone; not all of these alone. ^ Some be- 
 liever is the link to connect with that atoning blood, 
 that witnessing gospel, and that comforting Spirit. 
 There is almost always a human agent somewhere; 
 it may be only in the giving of a tract, the asking 
 of a question; it may be a parent, a Sunday-school 
 teacher, a minister of Christ; but there is some 
 human link that comes between the soul and the 
 gospel, and so men are saved. So Paul said, " I fill 
 up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ." 
 Until the believer falls into line something is missing. 
 Christ on the cross is to be brought to the know- 
 ledge of men. The gospel of the printed page is to 
 be brought to the knowledge of m^en. The Holy 
 Ghost is an invisible personality, unknown and un- 
 recognized by the world. How is the world to be 
 saved ? The believing child of God lifts up the cross, 
 tells the gospel story to the unsaved, becomes the 
 dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit, and out of him 
 flows the water of life. Paul counted mission work 
 a sublime privilege: " Unto me, who am less than the 
 least of all saints, is tJiis grace given, that I should 
 preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches 
 of Christ." 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 He who is not a missionary Christian will be a 
 missing Christian when the great day comes for be- 
 stowing the rev/ards of service. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 243 
 
DAY 
 XX 
 
 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, 
 always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know 
 that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.— 1 Cor. xv. 58. 
 
 Only fixed convictions will produce permanent 
 Christian activity, and only those who are actively 
 at work will maintain fixed convictions. The two 
 may stand together; either attempted alone will fail. 
 
 John A. Broadus. 
 
 God can take the devilment, the meanness, and 
 the skill that a man had in serving the devil and 
 that he learned in serving the devil and make them 
 useful in his own work. Oh, I think that is great, 
 that the dear Lord Jesus Christ can turn the guns 
 on the devil. S. H. Hadley. 
 
 The honest service of Jesus Christ pays the soul 
 a rich dividend of solid satisfaction. There is no 
 wretchedness in a true Christian's trials; his bruised 
 flowers emit sweet fragrance. The fruits of the 
 Holy Spirit are love, joy, and peace; the promise of 
 the Lord Jesus is that his joy shall be full. The 
 sweetest honey is gathered out of the hive of a 
 busy, unselfish, useful, and holy life. 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 I shall pass through this world but once. Any 
 good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness 
 that I can show to any human being, let me do it 
 now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall 
 not pass this way again. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 244 
 
DAY 
 XXI 
 
 We are laborers together with God.— 1 Cor. iii. 9. 
 
 Too many men say, " My God, I am going to work 
 in such and such a part of the vineyard to-day; 
 please come and help me." Our true prayer should 
 be '' Lord, where are you working to-day? Let me 
 come and work along with you." We want God to 
 help us carry out our little plans; God wants us to 
 help him accomplish his great plan. We would be 
 much happier if, instead of trying to fit God mto our 
 scheme, we would fit ourselves into his and be work- 
 ers together with God. That is the secret of George 
 Miiller's work; he took for his motto. Our fellow- 
 ship [our partnership] is with the Father. Our 
 partnership is with the Father, and with the Son, 
 and mth the Holy Ghost, and we become very 
 humble members of the very great firm which never 
 suspends payment. We are workers together with 
 P J F. B. Meyer. 
 
 Let us do what we can. Let us not be seeking 
 some high position, but let us get down at the feet 
 of the Master and be willing to let God use us— to 
 let him breathe his Spirit upon us and send us out 
 to his work. If you can't be a lighthouse you can 
 be a tallow candle. 
 
 We want to get possession of power and use it. 
 God wants the power to get possession of us and use 
 us. If we give ourselves to the power to rule m us 
 the power will give itself to us to rule through us. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 One ought to talk only as loud as he lives-a rule 
 which would deprive some people of the privilege of 
 shouting, j^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ 
 
 245 
 
DAY 
 
 xxn 
 
 God does not want us to withdraw from the world 
 as recluses, but he wants us to mingle with our 
 fellow-men, and to seek in all ways to lead them 
 Godward. We are to own the ties of family and of 
 country, and to have sympathy for all humanity, 
 even as we have Christ for our example. He was a 
 familiar guest in the homes of the people. He took 
 the little children up in his arms and blessed them. 
 He was present at the marriage feast and in the 
 house of mourning. He went regularly to the feasts 
 at Jerusalem, and in all places and at all times was 
 ever accessible to and in sympathy with man. But 
 in doing this he ever retained his character as a 
 heavenly man. In the home he spoke of God. We 
 cannot conceive that he ever occupied his precious 
 time in talking with Martha and Mary about Herod's 
 last ball or the theatrical entertainments at the 
 Jerusalem theater, or gossiped with them about the 
 latest Roman fashions or the last scandal at Herod's 
 palace. Nor would Jesus be led by Simon and the 
 Pharisees to spend the dinner hour in discussing 
 ecclesiastical politics and criticizing the latest 
 speeches in the sanhedrim; nor by Zaccheus into 
 a calculation as to the future course of the stock 
 market and the movements in the commercial world. 
 
 Filled with love and benevolence, a citizen of 
 heaven, Christ moved here a man among men; but 
 a heavenly-minded man— never allowing himself to 
 be dragged down to a worldly level, but ever seeking 
 to lift up the men of the world to the plane of 
 heavenly things where he abode. 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 246 
 
DAY 
 
 xxni 
 
 Has a Christian concern with any other conversa- 
 tion than Christ? This whole land would be swept 
 with the Christian life as no section of the world 
 has ever been swept mth it if men made it their 
 business to talk Christ; if, when they walked with 
 one another, they talked him; if, when they sat down 
 for a conversation, they talked him; if they came to 
 know Christ as the object of their speech. Mr. 
 Ruskin gathers up what the conviction of all of us 
 must be, in his "Notes on the Construction of 
 Sheepfolds," when he says that it is the business of 
 every Christian man, w^he.ther he be a minister or 
 layman, to be constantly and incessantly talking 
 Christ, not only indirectly but directly; to the ser- 
 vants in his home, to the men he meets on railway- 
 trains, to that man with whom he is thrown in touch 
 in his work in life; it is his one business as a Chris- 
 tian man to talk Jesus Christ. Oh, the glory of the 
 lives who have learned that lesson ! 
 
 Robert E. Speer. 
 
 You never can tell when God will take a little 
 word you may drop, like an arrow shot at a venture, 
 and cause it to strike some hearer between the joints 
 of the harness and bring him down. Therefore let 
 no opportunity slip for speaking a word for Christ. 
 
 A. F. SCHAUFFLER. 
 
 Do you want to be like Christ ? Go and find some 
 one who has fallen, and get your arm under him and 
 lift him up toward heaven, and the Lord will bless 
 you in the very act. May God help us to act like 
 the good Samaritan. D. L.' Moody. 
 
 247 
 
DAY 
 XXIV 
 
 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might 
 he increaseth strength.— Isa. xl. 29. 
 
 God gives power to them that have no might; he 
 increases their strength so that they mount up with 
 wings as eagles. Notice the great contrast between 
 the arrow and the eagle. The arrow shot from the 
 bow always slackens in its pace with every inch of 
 space over which it flies, because of the friction with 
 which it meets; but the eagle's flight is ever swifter 
 and higher because its speed is not derived from the 
 impetus with which it is launched into space, but 
 it is fed by the inherent fountain of vitality and 
 strength within. Thus the believer does not know 
 the slackening speed of the arrow, but the ever- 
 soaring and quickening speed of the eagle, because 
 his strength is fed from within, where God, the un- 
 tired, is ever maintaining his energy. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 Demonstrate in your own experience that God is 
 teaching you to win souls for Christ here and now 
 before you cross the Atlantic or Pacific. Has there 
 been a revival in your town since you were called? 
 You will never find men laughing at the idea of your 
 being a missionary if you can wake up your native 
 town. That is what we w^ant for men who are to 
 labor in China, in Japan, in India, where the most 
 colossal difliculties have to be met; we want not an 
 army so much as an elect company who have proved 
 their power on their native sod before they encounter 
 those bulwarks of Satan in pagan fields. 
 
 H. C. Mabie. 
 
 248 
 
DAY 
 XXV 
 
 He that winneth souls is wise.— Prov. xi. 30. 
 
 I don't know the prominent business men of 
 Babylon. I couldn't tell who the sharpest politicians 
 were, the leading philosophers or astronomers; could 
 you? But I know Daniel pretty well; his spotless life 
 is still resplendent as the day, and the good he did 
 to those about him is still recorded to perpetuate 
 his name. Oh, it's true that he that winneth souls 
 is wise! D. L. Moody. 
 
 By far the best way to help men with their 
 temptations is to bring them to Christ. It may be 
 of some service to a man if, in the time of trial, I 
 put round him the sympathetic arm of a brother; 
 but it is infinitely better if I can get him to allow 
 Christ to put round him his strong arm. This is the 
 effectual defense, and no other can be really de- 
 pended on. 
 
 James Stalker. 
 
 We can serve God acceptably in any sphere ; every 
 calling may be made a divine vocation. The great 
 mistake of many is that they feel they must leave 
 tha carpenter's plane, give up the trowel, and enter 
 some learned profession. God says, "What's that 
 in your hand?" In Moses' hand was the shepherd's 
 crook, in Solomon's the scepter, in David's the sling 
 or the harp, and in Dorcas's the needle. The Bible 
 is God's tool-chest. It is one of these patent tool- 
 chests which contains every kind of tool. The Word 
 of God is adapted to every purpose. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 249 
 
DAY 
 XXVI 
 
 No obstacles in the way of the Christian pulpit 
 and Christian work ought to be named as an apology 
 for omitting to do that work except the obstacles 
 within the church itself. As well might General 
 Grant have complained of the cannon and sharp- 
 shooting of Lee's army; but for them there would 
 have been no use for him. We are to go on with 
 the conquest set before us. Cyrus D. Foss. 
 
 To a very large extent preaching in the pulpit 
 to-day is preaching in defense of the Bible rather 
 than preaching the content of the Bible. We spend 
 a great deal of time in making clear and clean the 
 approaches to the temple, and a great many of us 
 never get any farther than the vestibule door, and 
 we spend so much time in this way that we do not 
 have time to go inside and worship. 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 Christ sends us into all the world to preach the 
 gospel ; and every time we preach the Holy Ghost is 
 present to bring home the message to men's hearts. 
 I confess that I am not sure if I preach on politics 
 or on the strikes that the Holy Ghost will bear wit- 
 ness to that teaching. These miay be important 
 matters, but the Spirit has been given to bear tes- 
 timony to Jesus Christ. I have not the sense of his 
 presence in handling these themes, if I ever venture 
 on them; but I often do have it when preaching 
 Christ, even in the simplest way— the Holy Ghost 
 co-witnessing and bearing the message home to the 
 hearts and consciences of mc^. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 250 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvn 
 
 The work of the world's evangelization is a matter 
 not of option but of obligation. Christianity is not 
 worth keeping unless we take for granted that what 
 makes Christianity Avorth having is that it brings 
 to us the message of life found nowhere else. If 
 that is so, then this places us under obligation to 
 give the message to all the world. The moment a 
 man says that his Christianity does not require him 
 to give the gospel to the world, then he hasn't a 
 Christianity at all. We believe that God sent his 
 Son from heaven, and that the Son gave his life for 
 the world's life upon the cross; that he came not to 
 judge, but to save the world; that God was in him 
 reconciling the w^orld to himself; that he told his 
 disciples to give the message of his life and his death 
 and his blood to every creature; that you and I are 
 his disciples; and that apart trom his name there is 
 " no name under heaven given among men, whereby 
 we must be saved." Does not this belief carry with 
 it the obligation to spread the knowledge of these 
 facts around the world? Yet here w^e sit. Imagine 
 Simon Peter standing on the shores running up from 
 the Sea of Galilee, ^^ith a loaf in one hand and a fish 
 in the other, while five thousand poor starving people 
 lie about on the grass, and saying, " What a pity it 
 is that these poor people are not given something to 
 eat! What a nice thing it would be if some one 
 went out and fed them!" Would Christ have 
 allowed him to go about with a misty sort of sym- 
 pathy for a world that w^as dying for a practical 
 knowledge of Christ? No; he said, "Give ye them 
 to eat." The work of evangelizing this world, for 
 every man, is a matter of personal, inalienable 
 obligation. Robert E. Speer. 
 
 251 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvm 
 
 If you find, by the Bible teachings, that one tenth 
 of your income and one seventh of your time belong 
 to the Lord absolutely and outright to begin with, 
 and that your hold on the other nine tenths of your 
 income and six sevenths of your time is not that of 
 unconditional ownership, but of conditioned Chris- 
 tian stewardship, then see whether your conscience- 
 chronometer does not run pretty slow in that latitude. 
 A rating up of Christian consciences generally, by 
 this standard, would add ciphers pretty fast at the 
 right hand of benevolent contributions. There would 
 be little trouble then about the support of mission- 
 aries or the building of new churches. 
 
 Henry Clay Trumbull. 
 
 I go to Christians of wealth and ask for money, 
 and they say, " My money is so tied up that I cannot 
 spare it." I want to see the church of God able to 
 say, " My money is so tied up that I cannot spare it 
 for the theater and ball-room; it is tied up for Jesus 
 Christ, it is under consecration." 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 God Almighty will take your poor gift with de- 
 light, even though it is not worth anything what- 
 ever. Only give him what you have, and you will 
 find that the joy of the Lord comes back to you 
 moment by moment, until at last you can say, " My 
 soul is satisfied with marrow and fatness," while 
 God is well pleased for his righteousness' sake. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe, 
 
 252 
 
DAY 
 XXIX 
 
 How are we to attain to the blessed position in 
 which the kingdom of God shall fill our hearts with 
 such enthusiasm that it will spontaneously be first 
 every day ? We must be ^^illing to give up everything 
 for it. You have often seen in history how soldiers 
 and men who were not soldiers could give up their 
 lives in sacrifice for king or country. In South 
 Africa, not many years ago, the war for liberty was 
 fought. They said, "We must have our liberty." 
 They bound themselves together to fight for it, 
 and went home to prepare for the struggle. Such 
 a thrill of enthusiasm passed through that country 
 that women whose husbands were exempt from ser- 
 vice said, "No; go, even though you have not been 
 commanded." Mothers, when one son was called to 
 the front, said, " Take two, take three." Every man 
 and woman was ready to die. It was in very deed, 
 " Our country first, before everything." So, if you 
 desire to have this wonderful kingdom of God take 
 possession of you, I beseech you, give up everything 
 for it. Andrew Murray. 
 
 If it costs much to be a zealous and successful 
 Christian, it will cost infinitely more to live and die 
 an impenitent sinner. Bible religion costs self-de- 
 nial; sin costs self-destruction. To be a sober man 
 costs self-restraint and the scoff of fools. To be a 
 tippler costs a ruined purse, a ruined body, and a 
 lost soul. The sensualist pays for his vices a tre- 
 mendous toll. The swearer must pay for his oaths, 
 and the Sabbath-breaker for his breach of God's 
 law. 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 253 
 
DAY 
 XXX 
 
 A holy life is made up of a number of small 
 things; little words, not eloquent speeches or ser- 
 mons; little deeds, not miracles of battle nor one 
 great heroic act of mighty martyrdom, make up the 
 true Christian life. The little constant sunbeam, 
 not the lightning; the waters of Siloam that "go 
 softly " in the meek mission of refreshment, not the 
 " waters of the river, great and many," rushing down 
 in noisy torrents, are the true symbols of a holy life. 
 The avoidance of little evils, little sins, little incon- 
 sistencies, little weaknesses, little follies, indiscre- 
 tions, and imprudences, little foibles, little indul- 
 gences of the flesh; the avoidance of such little things 
 as these goes far to make up at least the negative 
 beauty of a holy life. Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 Any man who persists in living in known sin or 
 indulging in questionable practices, entertaining 
 doubts about things that he would be certain about 
 if he woke up, is not in a position to be used by God. 
 We must live near to God that we may hear his 
 voice. His voice was not in the great wind nor in 
 the earthquake, nor yet in the fire, but in the still, 
 small voice, or, as the Revised Version puts it, the 
 "sound of gentle stillness." We hear the noise 
 of rumbling, the voice of birds, and other voices of 
 nature; if we shut these out, we listen to the voice 
 of man; if we shut this out, we hear the voice of 
 selfish ambition. How hard it is to get down to 
 that point where we hear the voice which the sheep 
 always know! I beseech you, be not content until 
 you have heard that voice. Keep near to God. 
 
 John R. Mott. 
 
 254 
 
DAY 
 XXXI 
 
 Where the devil cannot rob us of our salvation he 
 often very easily robs us of our expectation. Your 
 ability to exhibit better, brighter, more powerful, and 
 more beautiful lives in future than you dreamed 
 possible in the past depends upon your conception 
 of God. If we could only comprehend God we 
 should live a perfect life, because " this is life eter- 
 nal, that they might know thee the only true God, and 
 Jesus Christ, w^hom thou hast sent." It is for want 
 of knowledge of God that our lives are such failures. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 Surely it is the marvel of angels how near we 
 stand to God and spend so much of our life in carry- 
 ing burdens that he w^ould bear and in not seeking 
 by fellowship with him that grace which we need 
 for his work and for daily duty. Probably the 
 reason why we pray so little is because we under- 
 stand so slightly the philosophy of prayer. The key 
 to the philosophy of prayer lies in the general con- 
 ception that true prayer is the reflection of the 
 thought and mind of God, and that just as the 
 fountain, rising day and night, seeks the level from 
 which it came, so the prayer of the believer comes 
 from God and returns to God. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 Some men tell us that they don't have time to 
 pray; but if any man has God's work Ijdng deep in 
 his heart, he will have time to pray. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 255 
 
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! 
 Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! 
 Heir of salvation, purchase of God, 
 Born of his Spirit, washed in his blood. 
 
 This is my story, this is my song, 
 Praising my Saviour all the day long. 
 
 Perfect submission, perfect delight. 
 Visions of rapture now burst on my sight; 
 Angels descending bring from above 
 Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. 
 
 Perfect submission, all is at rest, 
 I in my Saviour am happy and blest. 
 Watching and waiting, looking above, 
 Filled with his goodness, lost in his love. 
 Fanny J. Crosby. 
 
 256 
 
[Month of September 
 
 Crysaiitluiiiiiiiis 
 7(. A. Toner Tin- Mount Hi'iinoii Fern- 
 
I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the 
 dry ground. — Isa. xliv. 3. 
 
 Do you know what it means to be thirsty? Ah, 
 when a man is thirsty it seems as if every pore in 
 his body cried one thing: "Water, water, water!" 
 When a man is thirsty for the baptism with the 
 Holy Ghost all the longings of his soul seem to be 
 concentrated in one cry: " The Holy Ghost, the Holy 
 Ghost, the Holy Ghost!" Just so long as a man is 
 trying to find some way of accomplishing his work 
 without the Holy Spirit, and believes that he can 
 get along without this baptism, he is not going to 
 receive it. 
 
 R. A. TORREY. 
 
 I wish that we were so thirsty to-day that the 
 flood-gates would be lifted up and the tide from 
 heaven come in upon us. What does the hungry 
 man want? Money? Not at all. Fame? Not a 
 bit. Good clothes? Not a bit. Good reputation? 
 No; that isn't it. He wants /oo(Z. What does the 
 thirsty man want? Bonds and stocks? No; he 
 wants water. When we are in dead earnest, and 
 want the bread of heaven and the water of life with 
 all our souls, we are going to get it. You may be 
 as dry as tinder, but, thank God, you can have all 
 this living water if you come boldly before the 
 throne of grace and present your case. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 We are sav/ing off the branch that we are sitting 
 on when we resist the Spirit of God. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 257 
 
DAY 
 
 n 
 
 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of 
 righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not 
 on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see 
 me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is 
 judged.— John xvi. 8. 
 
 The Spirit has been sent to the church to bear 
 witness of Christ in order to bring conviction to the 
 world. Jesus Christ performs three offices in his 
 work of redemption, as prophet, priest, and King. The 
 Holy Spirit has also a corresponding threefold con- 
 viction to bring home to men's hearts. He convinces, 
 first, concerning Christ who was crucified; second, 
 concerning Christ who has been glorified ; third, con- 
 cerning Christ who is to come again and judge the 
 world. 
 
 Conscience bears witness to the law; the Comforter 
 bears witness to Christ. Conscience brings legal 
 conviction; the Comforter brings evangelical con- 
 viction. Conscience brings conviction unto con- 
 demnation, and the Comforter brings conviction 
 unto justification. "He shall convince the world 
 of sin, because they believe not on me." The coming 
 of the Son of God made a sin possible that was not 
 possible before; light reveals darkness. There are 
 negroes in central Africa who never dreamed that 
 they were black until they saw the face of a white 
 man; and there are people vv^ho never knew they 
 were sinful until they saw the face of Jesus Christ 
 in all its whiteness and purity. 
 
 Conscience convicts of sin committed, of right- 
 eousness impossible, and of judgment impending. 
 The Comforter convicts of sin committed, of right- 
 eousness imputed, and of judgment past. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 258 
 
DAY 
 
 m 
 
 He . . . commanded them that they should not depart from 
 Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.— Acts i. 4. 
 
 If the apostles, who had been associated with 
 Christ, who had heard all his sermons and seen all 
 his miracles, needed to w^ait for power, do you not 
 think that we need to wait upon God for powder be- 
 fore we undertake service for him? Suppose that 
 Peter had said, "Lord, you don't mean that we 
 should wait here while men are perishing all the 
 time; hadn't we better go to them now?" "No, 
 no; go back and wait until the power comes, and 
 greater works than I have done shall ye do." I 
 used to think the greatest work in this wide world 
 was the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead; 
 but the longer I work the more I am convinced that 
 the greatest miracle the world has ever known was 
 on the day of Pentecost, when three thousand Jews 
 were converted by an unlettered fisherman from 
 Galilee, in one sermon. Some one has said that 
 now it takes three thousand sermons to convert one 
 Jew. I believe that if these men had gone to preach- 
 ing'^bef ore they had received power they would have 
 been swept from the face of the earth. They waited 
 ten days, and then the power came. Oh, how re- 
 freshing it must have been! I suppose there were 
 more converted at that one sermon of Peter than 
 during all the three years of Christ's ministry. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 Peter, when asked how the work of Pentecost was 
 done, said, " With the Holy Ghost." The greatest 
 works for God have been wrought with such power 
 of the Holy Ghost that there has been no conscious- 
 ness of forth-putting of human energy. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 259 
 
DAY 
 IV 
 
 Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all 
 Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 
 —Acts i. 8. 
 
 I venture to say the hardest place for those dis- 
 ciples to begin to preach was in their own city, 
 Jerusalem. Then Judea was the next hardest place 
 and Samaria was the next hardest. The hardest 
 place to begin is at home, in your own church, your 
 own family; but that is what God wants us to do. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 God calls us to be witnesses. What does it re- 
 quire for you to be a witness? First you must know 
 something, and then tell it. Is there any one who 
 cannot do that? Have Jesus Christ in your soul 
 and a tongue to tell it. Belief in the heart and con- 
 fession with the mouth— that makes a witness. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 You must teach what the Spirit of God has brought 
 home and wrought into your own experience, not 
 what you gain from any one else. You must be 
 able to say, " I not only know whom I have believed, 
 but I know what I believe; I know the dangers 
 against which I warn men; the means of grace— 
 prayer. Scripture, and the sacrament— to which I 
 point them; I lead them along paths which I have 
 trodden; I teach them to value what I have come to 
 prize." A. C. A. Hall. 
 
 A man is never safe in rebuking another if it does 
 not cost him something to have to do it. 
 
 Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 260 
 
DAY 
 V 
 
 Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.— Matt. iv. 19. 
 
 It is a simple thing to be a fisher. Fishing does 
 not mean a gaily painted boat and a swallowtail 
 coat. You want to set your heart on the fish and 
 not on yourself. Too many regard the world as a 
 place for boat-riding. Go where the fish are and do 
 not be afraid to fish. Go into partnership with 
 Christ, and you will find that you will have many 
 miraculous drafts. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 There are lots of nets that will never catch any 
 fish unless they are first washed and mended. It is 
 always well when you are going to fish to go where 
 the fish are; nowadays we have a fashion of building 
 a big fish-house on a hill, and expecting the fish to 
 come up out of the water to be caught. 
 
 H. L. Hastings. 
 
 The first thing we must do if we want to win 
 sinners is to get down to a level with them. Don't 
 go under the supposition that you are a great deal 
 better than they. When Christ wanted to save the 
 poor Samaritan woman he traveled forty miles to 
 meet her, and in order to gain her confidence and 
 reach her sympathies he asked her for water. 
 
 Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 When a man gets up so high that he can't reach 
 down and save poor sinners, there is something 
 wrong. D. L. Moody. 
 
 261 
 
DAY 
 VI 
 
 One great difference between the Christian and 
 the non-Christian worker is this: non-Christian 
 workers say that there is a certain proportion of 
 rnen who cannot be reached anyway. As a modern 
 English author has said, '^ There is no substitute for 
 a good heart, and no remedy for a bad one." Oh, 
 frightful gospel that some of the philanthropists of 
 our day are preaching! Is that all the message 
 they have to the world— no remedy for a bad heart? 
 What means the parable of the lost coin if, though 
 lost, there was no gleam of its original luster? 
 What means the parable of the lost sheep if there 
 was not some dumb, inarticulate longing for the 
 shelter of the fold? And what means the parable 
 of the lost son if there was not in those distant 
 fields a cry of longing for the father's home and 
 heart ? The Christian worker holds on to the promise 
 of God in Isaiah: "Though your sins be as scarlet, 
 they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like 
 crimson, they shall be as wool." There is no man 
 so low that the gospel of Christ cannot reach him; 
 there is no people gone so far astray, no slum in 
 the great city, which the grace of God cannot re- 
 deem; there is no field so dry and barren and deso- 
 late that when God works with us it may not become 
 the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 W. H. P. Faunce. 
 
 " Son of man, prophesy to the bones." God says, 
 "Do what you can; bare, white, and glistening 
 though they be, preach; roll away the stone of 
 do-nothingism and mere lamentation, and then trust 
 me for the quickening breath." 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
DAY 
 
 vn 
 
 Twelve men were Christ^s guests at his own table. 
 Their feet were dusty from the road, and it was the 
 business of the servant to wash them. But Jesus 
 never kept any servants, and these men were not 
 willing to pour water on one another's feet. Peter 
 thought, "It is just as much John's business to 
 wash my feet as it is my business to wash John's." 
 They said, " After all, our feet are not very dusty, 
 and if they should be washed now they would be 
 dusty again the minute we go out." Then Jesus 
 gave Christianity its badge— a basin and a towel. 
 The world has seldom seen a stranger thing than 
 Jesus washing the feet of Judas. When he came 
 to Peter, Peter said, ''Lord, dost thou wash my 
 feet?" Jesus said, "What I do thou knowest not 
 now, but thou shalt understand hereafter." " Thou 
 shalt never wash my feet." " If I wash thee not, 
 thou hast no part with me." "Lord, not my feet 
 only, but my hands and my head." Be willing that 
 God should give you just as much as he wants to 
 give. Are you? It is a serious thing. He may 
 say, " You want me to give you a very great bless- 
 ing; very well; I will let you help bring China to 
 Christ." Then you say, "I did not mean as much 
 as that; I meant a little blessing." Ah, be willing 
 that God should choose the blessing and give more 
 than you ask. Do not shrink back as Peter did. 
 Just take what he gives; God knows best. There is 
 in this world a great deal that passes for humility 
 which is pride. Humility says, " I am not worthy," 
 but to that sense of unworthiness comes the bless- 
 ing that mercy and grace bestow. 
 
 Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 263 
 
DAY 
 
 vm 
 
 Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say ? 
 —Luke vi. 46. 
 
 Christ feels that he has a right to command us, 
 not only as one who possesses us, but also as one 
 who has absolute, unquestionable authority over us, 
 as absolute as the potter's authority over his clay. 
 We sing to this day of the glory of the " Charge of 
 the Light Brigade." They knew perfectly well that 
 no one was justified in giving them the order to ride 
 to needless annihilation. No one would have blamed 
 their refusal to obey that order. But without ques- 
 tioning the order they rode straight into the jaws 
 of death, into the mouth of hell. 
 
 If men in war will obey commands which they 
 know to be unreasonable simply because given by 
 those in authority, what shall be said of us who call 
 Jesus Christ " Lord," who know it is impossible for 
 him to give us anything but loving and reasonable 
 commands, and who still allow these commands to 
 go unheeded and disobeyed? It is not our place to 
 raise objections or postpone obedience by excuses. 
 The Master will take care of things if we obey him. 
 But if we disobey him the laws which govern us 
 carry with them curses to men and women who call 
 him " Master," but fail to do his bidding. Can any 
 one for one moment think that we are exempt from 
 this curse? Why is it that Satan's influence is so 
 strong? Why is it that all Christian effort finds so 
 many almost insuperable obstacles in its path of 
 progress? Simply because generation after gener- 
 ation of those who have called Christ "Master" 
 have failed to do his bidding, his will. 
 
 Robert E. Speer. 
 
 264 
 
K'?ii'Ui*=#^-i^5a^^eTs:'=f^^^^^^ ^-^ 
 
 Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptiz- 
 ing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the 
 Holy Ghost.— Matt, xxviii. 19, R. V. 
 
 Do not wait for a special call to the foreign field. 
 Do not wait for an avalanche to strike you or for a 
 sheet to be let down from heaven. When Jehovah 
 addressed Elijah, was it through the strong wind? 
 Was the Lord in the earthquake or in the fire? 
 Listen to the "still, small voice." It floats across 
 the ocean. The millions of India, China, Japan, and 
 Africa are crying, "Come over and help us." Who 
 are under more obligation to go than we? 
 
 Robert P. Wilder. 
 
 We who have gone to the front send back an 
 appealing voice to our home churches in all the 
 lands that support us, asking them to hasten on the 
 reinforcements, that the final assault may now be 
 made. We strain our ears to catch the reply. 
 What is it that we hear? " Hold on! you are going 
 too fast. The church at home cannot afford to let 
 you advance any further. Hold what you have 
 gained if you can; but the church of Christ is too 
 poor to let you go on to the final assault for victory." 
 merciful Jesus! is it thus that we, redeemed by 
 thy precious blood— we for whom on Calvary thou 
 didst cry in agony, " My God, why hast thou forsaken 
 me? "—we, bought by the blood-sweat drops in Geth- 
 semane— is it thus that we show the measure of our 
 love to thee? 
 
 Jacob Chamberlain. 
 
 265 
 
DAY 
 X 
 
 Good impulses are abundant and cheap. They 
 will never hold you in a sharp fight unless you have 
 the staying power which Christ imparts. To stand 
 the sneers of scoffers, to resist the sudden rush for 
 wealth, to conquer fleshly appetites, to hold an un- 
 ruly temper under control, to keep base passions 
 subdued, and to direct all your plans and purposes 
 straight toward the highest mark require a power 
 above your own. Christ's mastery of you will give 
 you self-mastery; yes, and mastery over the powers 
 of darkness and of hell. Faith will fire the last 
 shot, and when the battle of life ends you will stand 
 among the crowned conquerors in glory. 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 It may be a diflficult task which is before us, but 
 we must not be discouraged. Difliculties are what 
 make character; men who can go into a hard field 
 and succeed— they are the men we want. Any 
 quantity of men are looking for easy places, but the 
 world will never hear of them. We want men who 
 are looking for hard places, who are willing to go 
 into the darkest corners of the earth and make those 
 dark places bloom like gardens. They can do it if 
 the Lord is with them. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 Many church-members turn up in Sunday cloth- 
 ing at popular conventions and for all dress-parade 
 occasions, but when there is a real battle with evil 
 to be fought they are missing. As one has well said, 
 "The tendency in our day is to take our religion with 
 too many trimmings." 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 266 
 
.A^^ DAY 
 
 XI 
 
 We need, above all things, more faith in God. You 
 may say that we cannot have too much of that. Yes, 
 we can. When Jesus was tempted of the devil he 
 was taken up on a pinnacle of the temple, and the 
 devil said, " Jump down." Our Lord replied, " Why 
 should I jump dou^i?" "Why, simply because the 
 Bible says that God will give his angels charge over 
 thee, and they shall bear thee up in their hands, 
 lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Now your 
 Father in heaven will not allow you to dash your 
 foot against a stone, so you just jump over and trust 
 to him." Jesus answered, "Thou shalt not tempt 
 the Lord thy God." You shall not jump off the 
 pinnacle of any temple unless you are called to do 
 it in the service of God and for his glory; you shall 
 not do it simply for the purpose of testing whether 
 God will keep his promise or not. There is the great 
 weakness of our Christian life and faith. We ask 
 God for something very earnestly, but without a 
 thought as to whether we are tempting God or 
 whether we are showing faith in him. 
 
 Faith in God leaves off and insanity and tempting 
 and recklessness begin at the moment when we ask 
 for more power and greater faith, while we intend 
 to use them for any other purpose than for his o^^m 
 divine glory. If God had said to Jesus, " Jump off 
 the pinnacle of the temple, for it will be to my 
 glory," he would have leaped off. But when it was 
 only bringing God's power and providence to bear 
 upon his life \\ith no advantage to the kingdom of 
 God, he said, "That is tempting God." You have 
 no right to exercise faith in getting from God that 
 which does not add to his glory. 
 
 Russell H. Conwell. 
 
 267 
 
DAY 
 
 xn 
 
 If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that be- 
 lieveth,— Mark ix, 23. 
 
 Why is there no water in the pipes of some of 
 our houses in winter? It is not because the city 
 has no water-supply; it is not because the streets 
 are not threaded all through their length from the 
 great reservoirs with a perfect system of piping; it 
 is not that the system of piping does not go into 
 every house. Then why do we turn the tap in vain 
 in our houses? Because there is a block of ice in 
 the pipes. Why is the blessing not leaping and 
 laughing like bubbling water through humanity? 
 It is not because the great ocean and fountain of 
 fullness is not there; it is not because the links of 
 communication between divine fullness and our 
 emptiness are not formed. Christ is there and his 
 church is here, and all the channels and tubes and 
 pipes of prayer and promise and supplication are 
 there. What is WTong? There is ice in the pipe; 
 that is the trouble. The frost has come on our 
 hearts— we are frozen, and need to be thawed out 
 by the fire of the Holy Spirit. John McNeill. 
 
 Men tell me that the day of miracles has passed, 
 but I answer no. Miracles have not ceased. Faith 
 has ceased. God offers all things to him who has the 
 faith to claim them. When he said, " Be filled with the 
 Spirit," he simply declared that this was possible. 
 When the will is surrendered he in whose dispensa- 
 tion we live will come in and fill us. And the result 
 is a kind of passive activity, as if one were ^vrought 
 upon and controlled by some power outside of him- 
 self. J. Wilbur Chapman. 
 268 
 
DAY 
 
 xm 
 
 The Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not 
 yet glorified.— John vii. 39. 
 
 What was true in the objective life of Christ must 
 be true of the subjective life of the Christian. Only 
 when Christ is King in your heart will you have the 
 fullness of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 The Holy Spirit is given to make the presence of 
 Jesus an abiding reality, a continual experience. 
 The joy unspeakable, the joy that nothing can take 
 away, the joy of -the nearness and friendship and 
 love of Jesus, fills our hearts. This alone will en- 
 able us to live in the rest of God. There is only 
 one hindrance: God's people do not know their Sa- 
 viour. They have no conception of Jesus as an ever- 
 present, all-pervading, indwelling Christ, who longs 
 to take charge of our whole life. Why can we not 
 trust our glorious, exalted, almighty, ever-present 
 Christ perfectly to do his work and bring us into the 
 rest of God? A man can endure almost anything 
 for the hope of joy; Jesus himself, " for the joy that 
 was set before him, endured the cross." A sighing 
 and a trembling and a doubting life is not right. 
 Believe that the joy of the Holy Ghost is meant for 
 you. Do you not loelieve that this adorable Son of 
 God, who shed his blood for you, could fill your 
 heart with delight day and night, if he were always 
 present? He is longing for you, because he needs 
 you to satisfy his heart of love. Let him have your 
 whole heart, and the joy of the Holy Ghost shall be 
 your portion. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 269 
 
DAY 
 XIV 
 
 All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedi- 
 ent and gainsaying people.— Rom. x. 21. 
 
 Have we ever thought of those " hands stretched 
 forth " from heaven to this world, draining themselves 
 of love, if it were possible, toward " disobedient and 
 gainsaying people " ? '\All day long I have stretched 
 forth my hands," saith the Lord. Is not this wonder- 
 ful—wonderful ? Men have to run away from the 
 love of God if they are ever without it. They must 
 get somewhere— I know not where; some strange 
 cell of their own invention must be found by men 
 who would escape the love of God; for God's hands 
 are stretched out, and they drip with riches of mercy. 
 Yet drops would not suffice, for, as we sing: 
 
 " Mercy-drops round us are falling, 
 But for the showers we plead." 
 
 And these show^ers of blessing are really falling upon 
 us all. H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 This poor lost world that has swung out into the 
 cold and the dark doesn't know anything about the 
 love of God, and if we do not love men with the 
 same kind of love that Jesus had for this lost world, 
 we are not going to reach them. I wish we could 
 rise to a higher plane of duty and let love be the 
 motive power. How easy it is to work for God if 
 the heart is filled with love! and if it is not filled 
 with love let us pray God to fill it with love. What 
 we want is to be baptized with the love of Christ 
 for this world, and if we are full of love for the 
 perishing, we are sure to succeed. 
 
 P, L, Moody. 
 
 270 
 
DAY 
 XV 
 
 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of 
 the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, nei- 
 ther he that loveth not his brother.— 1 John iii. 10, 
 
 One of the greatest services of Jesus to the world 
 was to harmonize religion and morality. He would 
 not allow neglect of man to be covered by zeal for 
 God, but ever taught that he only loves God who 
 loves his brother also. 
 
 James Stalker. 
 
 Tell me to love an unlovely person or one I have 
 never seen,— some heathen in Africa or China,— and 
 I cannot do it unless God puts the love for them in 
 my heart. But when the Holy Ghost sheds abroad 
 the love of God in our hearts, we shall have the 
 same kind of love that Jesus Christ had. What we 
 want is to be baptized with the Spirit of Calvary. 
 Mr. Spurgeon, a few years before he died, went to 
 visit a friend who had built a new barn, on which 
 was a weather-vane, and on that weather-vane the 
 text, '^ God is love." Mr. Spurgeon said, " Do you 
 mean that God's love is as changeable as the wind? " 
 "No," said his friend; "I mean to say that God is 
 love whichever way the wind blows." So if a man 
 is filled with the Spirit, he will be filled with love 
 whichever way the wind blows. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 The only greatness is unselfish love. . . . There is 
 a great difference between trying to please and giving 
 pleasure. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 271 
 
DAY 
 XVI 
 
 Two Germans wanted to climb the Matterhorn, 
 near which they were staying. They took three 
 guides, and began to climb the mountain in its 
 steepest and most slippery part. When traveling 
 thus they rope themselves together; there was first 
 a guide, next a traveler, then another guide, then 
 the second traveler, and finally a guide— five men in 
 all. When they had been ascending for a short 
 time the guide at the bottom began to slip, but was 
 held up by the other four, whose feet rested in 
 niches cut in the rock; but the last pulled down the 
 man just above him, and these two dislodged the 
 next, and the three the one above them. The only 
 man who kept his footing was the first, who drove 
 his ax with all his might into the ice before him and 
 clung to it; and as he stood, the man beneath re- 
 gained his footing, and so the next and the next and 
 the next, and the whole party were saved because 
 the first man stood his ground. 
 
 I am one of those men that slipped, but, thank 
 God, I am bound in living partnership to Christ in 
 glory, and because he stands, I can never be cast 
 away. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 The penitent thief turned to Jesus when of the 
 whole world he alone was praying to Christ. Do 
 not wait to see what others do. There must be 
 personal intrustment of the soul to Jesus' death to sin ; 
 personal acceptance of Jesus to do the mighty work. 
 
 Andrew Murray, 
 
 272 
 
.A^^ DAY 
 
 xvn 
 
 The gospels nowhere describe Christ's character. 
 They nowhere tell us that he was dignified under 
 insult, calm before opposition, submissive under 
 suffering, indignant at the sight of hypocrisy, sym- 
 pathetic with sorrow. These characteristics are 
 manifested by him, but never affirmed of him. They 
 appear only in his words and acts. The writers of 
 the first three gospels make no attempt at delinea- 
 tion; they are apparently quite unconscious that 
 they are giving to the world a portrait; they make 
 Christ speak and act before us, and we form our 
 judgment of his character independently, as if we 
 had seen and heard him ourselves. Whatever feel- 
 ings may spring from reading the gospels, they are 
 never the result of sympathy with the writers. One 
 could not be sure, judging simply from their style, 
 that the synoptic evangelists were not indifferent 
 spectators of what they recorded. There is no 
 writing for effect, no exhibition of their own opin- 
 ions, but an unadorned narrative which simply re- 
 counts the words and works of Christ. From these 
 we get a distinct conception of this divine-human 
 character. Josiah Strong. 
 
 , Many Christs are now preached, but we know only 
 one— Jesi^s. To some, alas! he is a myth or fabled 
 god; to others merely a hero, philosopher, or poet. 
 Alas for such as are swept down the rapid cur- 
 rent of humanitarianism, or are swallowed in the 
 vortex of religious infidelity! Better believe in no 
 Christ than be guilty of acknowledging a perverted 
 or mutilated Christ. Better renounce all belief in 
 the supernatural and spiritual if to us Christ is not 
 verily divine, if Jesus is not God manifest in flesh. 
 
 George C. Needham. 
 
 273 
 
DAY 
 
 xvin 
 
 When I see the blood, I will pass over you.— Exod. xii. 13. 
 
 God did not say to Israel, and he does not say to 
 us, "When I see your good works, your good in- 
 tentions, your righteousness," but " When I see the 
 blood, I will pass over you." What made those Is- 
 raelites safe in Goshen when the Egjrptians were all 
 exposed to death? It was not their righteousness, 
 but it was an act of obedience; it was putting the 
 blood upon their homes. Some people say that it 
 is not the death of Christ that atones for sin and 
 that is going to help men, but that it is the life and 
 teaching of Christ, the moral example, that it is 
 preaching his character, that will reform the world. 
 God didn't say, " When I see a live lamb tied at your 
 door-post, I will pass over you." If some Israelite had 
 tried that, death would have laid his hand on the 
 first-born in that house. But it was the death of the 
 lamb. Many men seem to think that if they were 
 only as good as Moses or Aaron or Caleb or Joshua, 
 they would be perfectly safe. But the babe in his 
 mother's arms was just as safe as Moses or Caleb or 
 Aaron, or any other of the Israelites. It was the 
 blood that made them safe; it was not their own 
 righteousness. If you are sheltered behind the 
 blood, you are as safe as if you were in heaven to- 
 day. Some one has said that a little fly in Noah's 
 ark was as safe as the elephant. It was not the 
 strength of the elephant that made him safe, but it 
 was the ark that saved the elephant as well as the 
 fly; so it is the blood of Christ that saves us. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 274 
 
..^^^ DAY 
 
 XIX 
 
 We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom 
 we have now received the atonement.— Rom. v. 11. 
 
 Sin and guilt produced entire and hopeless alien- 
 ation between God and man. The effect of Christ's 
 work is twofold : first, it makes possible in God the 
 reconciliation with man by the satisfaction made to 
 a broken law and a dishonored government; and 
 second, it makes possible man's reconciliation with 
 God by the regeneration of his sinful nature. As 
 alienation is mutual, so reconciliation must be mu- 
 tual. Paul represents the reconciliation between 
 man and God as already partial; i. e., on God's side, 
 in Christ, the attitude of reconciliation has been 
 taken. " God was in Christ, reconciling the world 
 unto himself." And so all that remains is for man 
 to turn toward God. He therefore adds, '' We pray 
 you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 The details of the atonement are questions which 
 concern the government of God. If we choose to 
 pry into them w^e shall find w^e are undertaking a 
 very difficult task. The attempts to explain the 
 process of salvation simply lead people into confu- 
 sion. I think that emphasis ought to be placed upon 
 the whole work of Christ m^ore than it has ever 
 been. The atonement is a question of status, man's 
 standing in God's sight. Christ would also have us 
 concerned about reproducing his life among men. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
 275 
 
DAY 
 XX 
 
 There is a popular impression abroad that repen- 
 tance is simply sorrow for sin. A man may be sorry 
 for sin simply because of the consequences of sin 
 which he has experienced, or because of the conse- 
 quences which some other person whom he loves 
 has experienced; and yet he may not be so sorry for 
 sin but that, as soon as those consequences are 
 removed, or even before, he will commit that very 
 same sin again and with delight. Pharaoh was 
 sorry for sin; yes, bitterly sorry for disobeying God 
 every time one of those dreadful plagues came down 
 upon him and his household and nation; and yet the 
 moment the plague was removed Pharaoh was the 
 same as before, and his heart was as hard against 
 God as it had ever been. Again, a man may be 
 sorry for sin, that is, for some particular sin, with- 
 out being at all sorry for some other sins which 
 bring him no difficulty, and at present no bitter 
 consequences. Herod is a case in point here. It 
 is wi'itten that the preaching of John the Baptist 
 made quite an impression upon Herod. When he 
 heard John, Herod "did many things, and heard 
 him gladly." The inference is that, as a result of 
 John's preaching, Herod laid aside certain of his 
 external sins, that he reformed in certain particu- 
 lars; but we know that, like Pharaoh, he never ex- 
 perienced repentance, for not long after, in a drunken 
 debauch, he permitted the murder of the man whom 
 he feared, and whose preaching he received appa- 
 rently with such gladness of heart. Whatever re- 
 pentance may be, it is not simply sorrow for sin. 
 
 James M. Gray. 
 
 276 
 
XXI 
 
 A young girl who had run away from home was 
 living a life of sin, and her mother wanted a friend 
 to find her daughter. This friend took a number of 
 photographs of the mother, and wrote down beneath 
 the sweet face these words: " Come back." Then he 
 took those pictures down into the haunts of Bin and 
 the mission stations, and left them there. Not long 
 after this daughter was going into a place of sin and 
 there she saw the face of her mother. The tears ran 
 down her face so that at first she could not see the 
 words beneath; but she brushed away the tears and 
 looked, and there they were: "Come back." She 
 went out to her old home, and when she put her 
 hand on the latch the door was open, and when she 
 stepped in her mother, with her arms about her, 
 said, " My dear child, the door has never been fast- 
 ened since you went away." The door of God's 
 great heart of love has never been closed against 
 his sinning and erring children; it is wide open. 
 
 J. Wilbur Chapman. 
 
 Sometimes a sinner will be brought to realize his 
 position and the need of immediate acceptance of 
 Christ by showing him the uncertainty of life. I 
 remember once talking to a young man before 
 others. Said I, "I want you to promise me that 
 you will not become a Christian for one year." 
 " Oh my! No, sir! " said he. I shortened it a little: 
 "Will you make it six months?" That seemed to 
 sober him. "No," he said; "I will make it a 
 month." " No, no." " I will make it a week." The 
 Lord blessed that to his awakening. He realized 
 that he v/as not sure of his life for a single day. 
 
 A. F. SCHAUFFLER. 
 
 277 
 
DAY 
 
 xxn 
 
 Resist the devil, and he will flee from j'^ou.— James iv. 7. 
 
 Resist him when he comes ^vith subtle doubts, with 
 difficult questions, with hard and bitter things 
 against you; drive him back by the sword of the 
 Spirit and the shield of faith; quench all his fiery 
 darts, and listen to the voice of God. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 Billy Bray, the Cornish miner whose rugged piety 
 has been a blessing to so many of God's children, 
 gives much instruction in his quaint way as to how 
 to treat the temptations of Satan. He says that 
 one day, when he was a little downhearted, he stood 
 upon the brink of a coal-pit, and some one seemed 
 to say, " Now, Billy, just throw yourself down there 
 and be rid of all your trouble." He knew in a 
 minute who it was, and, drawing back, said, " Oh 
 no, Satan; you can just throw yourself down there. 
 That is your way home; but I am going to my home 
 in a different direction." Another time his crop of 
 potatoes turned out poorly; and as he was digging 
 them in the fall, Satan was at his elbow and said, 
 " There, Billy, isn't that poor pay for serving your 
 Father the way you have all the year? Just see 
 those small potatoes." He stopped hoeing and re- 
 plied, "Ah, Satan, at it again— talking against my 
 Father, bless his name! Why, when I served you I 
 didn't get any potatoes at all. What are you talking 
 against Father for?" And on he went hoeing and 
 praising the Lord for small potatoes— a valuable 
 lesson for us all. 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 278 
 
DAY 
 
 xxm 
 
 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the 
 body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord.— Rom. vii. 24, 25. 
 
 The bitterest experience with most believers is the 
 presence and power of sin. They long to walk 
 through this grimy world with pure hearts and 
 stainless garments. But when they would do good, 
 evil is present v/ith them. They consent to God's 
 law, that it is good; they endeavor to keep it; but 
 they seem as unable to perform it as a man whose 
 brain has been smitten with paralysis is unable to 
 walk straight. AVhat rivers of tears have been 
 shed over the penitents' psalm by those who could 
 repeat it every word from the heart! And what 
 regiments of weary feet have trodden the Bridge of 
 Sighs, if we may so call the seventh of Romans, 
 which sets forth in vivid force the experience of a 
 man who has not learned God's secret! 
 
 Surely our God must have provided for all this. 
 It would not have been like him to fill us with hatred 
 to sin and longings for holiness if there were no 
 escape from the tyranny of the one, and no possi- 
 bility of attaining the other. It would be a small 
 matter to save us from sinning on the other side of 
 the pearly gate; we want to be saved from sinning 
 now and in this dark world. We want it for the 
 sake of the world, that it may be attracted and con- 
 vinced. We want it for our own peace, which can- 
 not be perfected while we groan under a worse than 
 Egyptian bondage. We want it for the glory of 
 God, which would be then reflected from us with 
 undimming brightness, as sunshine from burnished 
 metal. Thank God, we may have deliverance through 
 Jesus Christ. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 279 
 
DAY 
 
 xxrv 
 
 A great many people have consciences which are 
 morbidly scrupulous. They are constantly asking, 
 " Ought I to wear jewels ? " " Ought I to go to this, 
 that, or the other place?" What would a young 
 man think if, when he came to spend one hour a 
 week in the com.pany of his loved one, she was all 
 the while upstairs before the dressing-glass, putting 
 on now this and now the other thing, and seeing 
 how she looked in them, until the last three minutes 
 of his hour, when she would come down, hoping 
 that, on the whole, she v/ould suit? Now a scru- 
 pulous conscience is always keeping the soul wonder- 
 ing as to what will suit Christ. You should ask 
 Christ to show you what he would have you do. 
 An enlightened conscience is the contrast, the 
 antipodes, to a scrupulous conscience, and if you 
 want to have an enlightened conscience, bathe it 
 in the truth of God's Word. Some people think 
 that the law of God is soap to cleanse them with. 
 It is not soap; it is a looking-glass in which they 
 may see themselves and com.pare themselves with 
 God's eternal standard of rectitude. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 We cannot be justified by the law which we have 
 broken. Christ would have committed spiritual 
 adultery if he had brought us into union with him- 
 self before he had broken the connection between 
 us and our first husband. But Christ died in our 
 place, that he might destroy him that had the power 
 of death; and when he had overthrown him he rose 
 triumphant, and in the power of an endless life he 
 wedded the soul that believes in him. Now, in 
 union with the risen Lord, the Christian brings forth 
 fruit unto God. Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 280 
 
DAY 
 XXV 
 
 When God made this world he made laws to regu- 
 late it. This universe could not exist if it were not 
 for law, and there cannot be a law without a penalty 
 for its violation. The controversy of Eden is not 
 settled yet. God said, " The soul that sinneth, it 
 shall die." Satan walked in and said, " You will not 
 die if you sin." Adam believed Satan's lie, and that 
 is where he fell, and you and I are to rise on the 
 spot where he tumbled. The law has been broken, 
 and the penalty must be met. I must either die or 
 find some one to die for me. Why does God demand 
 blood? It is the life of all flesh, and all flesh has 
 sinned and come short of the glory of God; and how 
 can the law of God be kept, and how can God jus- 
 tify me without ignoring his law ? It is an absurdity 
 to have a law without a penalty. Suppose that no 
 penalty should be attached to the law against steal- 
 ing; some man would have my pocket-book inside 
 of five minutes. It is not the law that people are 
 afraid of; it is the penalty. I believe there was 
 one legislature that made a law and forgot to 
 attach a penalty, and it was the laughing-stock of 
 the day. Do you suppose God has made a law with- 
 out a penalty ? What an absurd thing it would be ! 
 Now, there is a penalty; it is death. I must either 
 die or get somebody to die for m.e, and if that old 
 Book does not teach that doctrine it does not teach 
 anything. It teaches it from the beginning to the 
 end. If God turned Adam^ out of Eden for that 
 one sin, do you think he is going to allow us into 
 heaven with ten thousand sins? 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 281 
 
DAY 
 XXVI 
 
 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that 
 come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make interces- 
 sion for them.— Heb. vii. 25. 
 
 Christ Jesus is able to save forever and forever, 
 because he is the same unchangeable priest; he is 
 able to save— to save unto completeness; not simply 
 to begin it and keep at it awhile, but to complete- 
 ness. Oh, the wrecks in human history of things 
 that men began with noble intent and sustained with 
 high endeavor; but they died, and their work fell 
 through and passed away. Our Saviour " is able to 
 complete the salvation of them that come to God 
 through him, seeing he ever liveth." 
 
 John A. Broadus. 
 
 A dear old woman lay dying, and an infidel came 
 in to scoff at her, and said, " They tell me you are 
 not afraid to die and are very happy." " Yes, thank 
 God." " Do you believe in a God ? " " Yes, I do." 
 "Do you believe God punishes sin?" "Yes, I do." 
 Then the infidel said, " I should like to know how 
 you are happy, for if there ever was a bad old 
 woman you are one. If what you say could be be- 
 lieved, it would be a great deal too good to be true." 
 She looked him in the face and said, "It is— it is a 
 deal too good to be true; but, bless the Lord, it is 
 true, for all that!" 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 Our repentance is far from being the condition of 
 God's forgiveness; the fact is, our tears need wash- 
 ing in the blood of Christ before they can be accept- 
 able. God was in Christ putting away the obstacles 
 to our communion with him. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 282 
 
<^^ DAY 
 
 XX vn 
 
 I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, 
 neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.— John x. 28. 
 
 What a place of protection! But, as if to make 
 it stronger, Jesus goes on to say, '' My Father . . . 
 is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck 
 them out of my Father's hand. I and my Fatjier 
 are one." Here is our position, in the hand of 
 Christ, the hand that swung the worlds off into 
 space, the hand that brushes the tear from a weep- 
 ing woman's face. Then just above us is placed the 
 hand of the Father, the hand that holds the winds 
 and turns them whithersoever he will; the Father 
 and the Son are one in holding us safe. What pro- 
 tection—held between the hands of the Father and 
 of the Son! 
 
 J. Wilbur Chapman. 
 
 There are three classes of people who never ought 
 to have assurance: those who have never been con- 
 verted, but have joined a church to get assurance, 
 those who believe but do not confess Christ, and 
 those who are unwilling to work for Christ. God 
 never intended a lazy person to have assurance. 
 Somebody has said, " If you want to be discouraged, 
 look within; if you want to be distracted, look about; 
 but if you want to be satisfied, look up." Some 
 people live on doubts, because they have nothing 
 else to do. Just be occupied mth the Master and 
 his work, and you mil have assurance. No matter 
 what the feeling, the relation with God is the same, 
 and even death cannot change it. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 283 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvra 
 
 Now the God of peace . . . make you perfect in every good 
 work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing 
 in his sight, through Jesus Christ ; to whom be glory for ever 
 and ever. Amen.— Heb. xiii. 20, 21. 
 
 In order to this we must receive a complete bap- 
 tism of the life-giving blood and yield ourselves un- 
 reservedly to its influence. According to the old 
 Scandinavian legend, "Siegfried slew Fafnir, and 
 in the hot blood of his foe he bathed himself, and 
 so took on, as it were, an outer covering of new life, 
 rendering himself sword-proof save at a single point, 
 where a leaf of the linden-tree fell between his 
 shoulders and shielded the flesh from the life-impart- 
 ing blood." 
 
 Christians, you claim to have been baptized with 
 blood,— the blood, not of a foe, but of your covenant 
 Friend,— and it is life-giving blood, but is it a full 
 baptism? Is there no linden-leaf betwixt your 
 shoulders? Is there no unsurrendered sin that 
 makes you vulnerable still to the assaults of Satan? 
 The tragedy of many a life pivots on the reservation 
 of some one cherished purpose. How many unbap- 
 tized dollars, how many unbaptized talents, how many 
 unbaptized ambitions, might be found in the visible 
 church? What is your reservation? What is the 
 besetting sin that prevents you from demonstrating 
 daily your identity of nature with the Son of God? 
 Give it up! It is the death-spot in your armor! 
 Invulnerable you cannot be until you bring the whole 
 life under the influence of that shielding blood. Do 
 that, and the very God of peace will sanctify you 
 wholly, and your whole spirit and soul and body will 
 be preserved blameless "unto the coming of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. W. W, Moore. 
 
 284 
 
mkj,/^ — ^«^ «=N>» 4. ^^G>^fl<aC-t#' DAY" 
 
 XXIX 
 
 Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which 
 he alloweth.— Rom. xiv. 22. 
 
 Apply that rule to your daily life and you will 
 soon settle the questions about a pleasure or busi- 
 ness. Can I go into partnership with one who serves 
 man and the devil? How can Christ have fellow- 
 ship with Belial ? Do not deceive yourself with the 
 idea you are going to do good. If you make your- 
 self one with the world on the plea of raising the 
 world to God, you know that you will have to pay 
 for it in the day of the Lord's settlement. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 There is a subtle leakage of power in a man who 
 is inconsistent with his best self. He may not show 
 it, he may seem as devoted and earnest as possible, 
 but there is a loss of the dynamics of spiritual force, 
 and the devil knows it and says, " I need not worry; 
 his sins are sufficient antidote for his work." 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 A man cannot have the kingdom of God first, and 
 then at times, by way of relaxation, throw it off and 
 seek his own enjoyment in the things of this world. 
 People have an idea that life will become too solemn, 
 too great a strain, if they have the kingdom of God 
 first continually. Every one feels at once how wrong 
 it is to think thus. The presence of the love of God 
 must every moment be our highest joy. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 Many Christians get cold warming themselves by 
 this world's fires. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 285 
 
XXX "^""^T^^ 
 
 Your consecration is not so much a consecration 
 which you make to Christ as a consecration which 
 Christ makes of you to himself. The one conspicu- 
 ous instance of consecration in the New Testament 
 is where Jesus says to the Father in his prayer, "Fa- 
 ther, I consecrate myself." He could do it. To 
 consecrate means to appoint, to ordain, to separate 
 or sanctify. If Christ had been a modern preacher 
 he would have said, "Now, my friends, consecrate 
 yourselves." He did not say that, but, "I conse- 
 crate myself; Father in heaven, consecrate my dis- 
 ciples. I separate myself; Father, separate them." 
 If there is any consecration that is effective, Christ 
 must consecrate us to his service. There seems to 
 be a provision for a periodical consecration which 
 ought not to be in any calendar or any meeting. 
 Never appoint a time a month ahead for a conse- 
 cration meeting. Well, but you say you may fall 
 away. Very well; but don't provide for it before- 
 hand. If you expect to fall away before the first 
 Sunday of every month you will probably do it. If 
 sometime in the middle of the month you find that 
 you are faltering, come back and devote yourself 
 again to God; but do it feeling that you can live 
 a Christian life by the force of the Christ-life which 
 he gives to you. It is a dreadful thing that so many 
 people are trying to consecrate themselves and save 
 themselves and strengthen themselves and work 
 their way out through life. You must let God con- 
 secrate you and strengthen and support you. Not 
 all the good books in the world, not the Bible, not 
 the church, not the sacraments, without Christ in 
 them and working through them, can do you much 
 good. Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 286 
 
Dvfontb of October 
 
 Oak Leaves 
 John McNeill The 'T{oad to Camp U^oi'thjield 
 
The nineteenth century is apt to quietly sneer us 
 out of our faith in the miraculous. We feel the 
 blush inclined to steal upon our cheeks, and "with 
 bated breath and bated whispering humbleness " we 
 would allow judgment to go by default, because we 
 do not like to say that we do believe in the miracu- 
 lous stories in the Bible. You remember how it 
 was with Peden, the great Scotch prophet, in the 
 killing times in Scotland when King James was the 
 Herod. Poor Peden, for the faith and fear of Jesus 
 Christ, was being persecuted, ^\^th a little band of his 
 followers to whom he had been preaching in dens 
 and caves of the earth in the south of Scotland. 
 They were alarmed in time and determined to make a 
 struggle for existence; they made a rush for safety. 
 Their pursuers, being horsemen, gained on them, 
 and when Peden and his little band had gone down 
 into the hollow of a hill, for want of breath and for 
 want of hope, he called a halt, and then he uttered 
 a memorable prayer. " God," he said, " it is the 
 day and the hour of the power of thine enemies. 
 They may not be idle, but hast thou no other work 
 for them than to send them after us? Send them 
 to pursue those to whom thou ^\dlt give strength to 
 flee; but as for us, our strength is gone. Twine 
 them round the hill, Lord, and cast the lap of 
 thy cloak round Sandy and these puir things, and 
 we shall tell to thy praise and glory what thou didst 
 for us at sic a time." As surely as he prayed one 
 of those dangerous, sudden, blinding mists for which 
 our Cheviot hills are famous came do^^^l upon them. 
 Their enemies with curses thundered past them 
 through the mist and never saw them. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 287 
 
DAY 
 
 n 
 
 Rejectors of the gospel will often be heard say- 
 ing, " Well, the Mohammedan has his belief, and 
 the Hindu his belief, and the Parsee his belief, and 
 the Christian his belief. They all have faith, and 
 each one who is sincere in his faith will be accepted 
 of God." If faith simply saved this might be so. But 
 with the statement, " God hath given to us eternal 
 life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the 
 Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son hath 
 not life," before us, its fallacy is readily seen. If a 
 man puts faith in a real, living person who has 
 power to save him, and who engages to save him, 
 he is certainly in a different position from the man 
 who puts faith in that which has not life and which 
 is not truth. 
 
 There were those in the time of Noah who un- 
 doubtedly had firm belief, as the rain commenced 
 falling, that the hills would be just as safe a refuge 
 for them as the ark. Their fii'm belief made no 
 difference in their fate. Noah had a firm belief in 
 God's word that the ark would save him. His belief 
 led him to go into the ark, and the ark, not his be- 
 lief, saved him. Christ is the ark in which we find 
 salvation. D. W. Whittle. 
 
 W^hen men ask us what we believe, our answer 
 should be, " It is not what I believe, but it is in 
 whom I believe." "I know whom I have believed." 
 I should have a personal knowledge of the person 
 in whom I believe. Christians have nothing to do 
 \vith " its " in their belief. Our creed and our bless- 
 ing are vitally connected ^^ith Christ; more than 
 that, they are Christ himself. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
DAY 
 
 m 
 
 So long as there is a radical difference between 
 truth and falsehood, and so long as truth sustains 
 relations to life, it will make a difference whether 
 men believe true or false doctrine. Doctrines are 
 the roots of life. Great lives do not grow out of 
 false beliefs. Doctrine is immensely important, but 
 not all-important. The root does not exist for 
 itself; it is a means to the tree and the fruit as an 
 end. A Christian truth in the heart brings forth 
 Christian acts in the life as naturally as the root 
 pushes its stalk up into the air and the sun. Cut 
 the stalk, fell the tree, and the root dies at length. 
 A faith without works is soon dead. If our doc- 
 trines do not flower and fruit in Christian living, 
 they die. Many a man's creed is a field full of 
 stumps. There was life there once, but because 
 the natural expression of that life was prevented, it 
 perished. We have not overestimated the impor- 
 tance of believing the truth, but we have underesti- 
 mated the importance of living the truth. 
 
 JosiAH Strong. 
 
 There can be nothing acceptable to God which 
 does not begin with faith, but he who is contented 
 with becoming a believer is like a man who expends 
 all his strength in laying a good foundation and 
 then ceases to build. 
 
 William Henry Green. 
 
 What the eye is to the body, faith is to the soul. 
 You don't dig your eyes out to see if you have the 
 right kind, but you are doing that to your faith. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 289 
 
DAY 
 IV 
 
 Have faith in God.— Mark xi. 22. 
 
 What do they think God is who speak of the 
 " good old times " or long for past hours when they 
 better knew and enjoyed the blessing and fellowship 
 of Christ? What kind of a God do they think we 
 have? Does he not always keep the best things for 
 the last? Is his love stronger than his strength, 
 that we had the best things yesterday and the day 
 before, and are not having yet better things to-day, 
 nor to have better things to-morrow? A true the- 
 ology insists that this month is the best month of 
 our lives. Every day is the best day, and the next 
 day will be better. 
 
 Robert E. Speer. 
 
 Trust the providence of God, but do not tempt 
 him by expecting too much. There are times when 
 we have no right to dismiss a subject by saying, 
 "God is God, and he will take care of his own." 
 The question really, then, is this: We have a duty 
 to perform, and God expects us to be of some use 
 in the world. We must pray; but pray for that 
 which will be for his glory. Do not ask God for 
 things which it is not best for him to give. Be not 
 dissatisfied when God says no to your request. 
 There is a difference between the things which we 
 are to receive and those which we are not to re- 
 ceive, and to discover this difference we need to 
 pray especially for the indwelling Spirit of the liv- 
 ing God. 
 
 Russell H. Conwell. 
 
 Faith is the golden key that unlocks the doors of 
 heaven. D. L. Moody. 
 
 290 
 
DAY 
 V 
 
 Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering : for he that wavereth 
 is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.— 
 James i. 6. 
 
 The church is weak to-day because it has not 
 come to appreciate the distinction between asking 
 and taking, between praying and claiming. They 
 may be parts of the same act, but alas! in too many 
 cases life passes by in perpetually pleading with 
 God to give certain gifts which all the while are 
 waiting for the suppliant soul upon the outstretched 
 palm of God, and all that the soul needs is to take. 
 Say to yourself, " My Father has blessed me with all 
 spiritual blessings in Christ," and then ask yourself 
 whether you are not living a life that seems to be 
 in the most distinct contradiction to the assertion 
 of that text. Now it is either true that God has 
 blessed you or has not blessed you with all spiritual 
 blessings in Christ. You are bound to believe that 
 God has put into Jesus Christ as your trustee his 
 own unsearchable wealth, that he has vested in the 
 hand of Jesus for every member of his mystical 
 body, the church, his own divine fullness. Then 
 how is it that your life is so threadbare? Do you 
 live in your home day by day as a spiritual million- 
 aire? Do you not rather live as a pauper? What 
 is the result of your influence upon your family and 
 upon others who know you best? Do you give them 
 to feel that there is something within your reach 
 that they have not yet touched, though they have 
 all the riches of the Indies? If we were once to 
 live as though we had something that they have 
 not, we would not have to press men to come to us; 
 they would come without pressing. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 291 
 
DAY 
 VI 
 
 Human life is character-building; for remember 
 that character means exactly what we are, while 
 reputation is only what other people think we are. 
 Every man builds his own character. Fix one fact 
 in your mind, however, and that is, the better and 
 stronger Christian you are, the more dearly you 
 must pay for it. All the best things are costly. 
 Jesus Christ laid down his life to redeem you from 
 sin and death. " Free grace " for you meant Cal- 
 vary for Christ. A strong godly character is not 
 to be had gratis. Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 The foundation of the spiritual temple that God 
 is erecting, in which the Holy Ghost will dwell, is 
 faith. Perseverance is the engineer that adds tier 
 upon tier and stair upon stair. Brotherly love is 
 the cement that binds all the stones together. 
 Memory comes and hangs the walls with tender 
 pictures of the past. Joy comes and fills every 
 apartment with flowers plucked from the Paradise 
 of God. Love comes and fills the halls with music, 
 and at last hope comes and throws over the edifice 
 a beautiful dome, through which aspiration looks 
 up and longs for heaven. But even then, when 
 man enters that edifice so divine, it only is to clothe 
 him for better, nobler service here upon earth, and 
 to prepare him for life eternal. M. D. HoGE. 
 
 We must not spend all our lives in cleaning our 
 windows, but in sunning ourselves in God's blessed 
 light. That light will soon show us what still needs 
 to be cleansed, and will enable us to cleanse it with 
 unerring accuracy. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 292 
 
DAY 
 
 vn 
 
 The best things in life have to be given freely, not 
 from a sense of duty. You never can measure out 
 friendship ; you never can tell how much a man ought 
 to do for his country ; you never can tell what he should 
 do for God. There is always that overflow, that abun- 
 dance, which is chiefly valuable for us, and is valu- 
 able to God as it comes as the freewill offering of 
 our hearts. You say of a certain person that he is 
 just, implying you don't quite like him. You say of 
 another person that he is generous, meaning that 
 you do like him. It is because of that which he 
 does beyond what he is obliged to do. If there is 
 any life where this applies with the utmost force it 
 is to the religious life. Your piety must make the 
 cup overflow. If you do exactly your duty and 
 nothing else, your life is no comfort to you and lit- 
 tle help to any one else. You want something of 
 joyousness and freedom in it and then it tells. 
 
 Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 There is a Christian life which, in comparison 
 with that experienced by the majority of Chris- 
 tians, is as summer to winter, or as the mature 
 fruitfulness of a golden autumn to the struggling 
 promise of a cold and late spring. This life should 
 be the normal life of every Christian. It is God's 
 thought not for a few, but for all his children. The 
 youngest and weakest may lay claim to it equally 
 with the strongest and oldest. We should step into 
 it at the moment of conversion, without wandering 
 with blistered feet for forty years in the desert. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 293 
 
DAY 
 
 vm 
 
 It was only when Luther could say, "Martin Luther 
 does not live here; Jesus Christ lives here," that God 
 could use Luther. And it was only as Paul could 
 say, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I 
 live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," that Paul 
 could be used of God. We cannot truly say, " Whom 
 I serve," until we have said, " Whose I am." 
 
 B. Fay Mills. 
 
 A French officer whose ship had been taken by 
 Nelson was brought on board Nelson's vessel, and 
 he walked up to the great admiral and gave him 
 his hand. "No," said Nelson; "your sword first, 
 please." That is the gospel. Many people would 
 take Christ's hand and say he is a noble character. 
 Give up your rebellious will first; admit your guilt; 
 then Christ will take your hand and never let go. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 " The creature is dead, but he don't know it," said 
 an Irishman, as he looked at the moving legs of a 
 turtle whose head he had cut off a few hours be- 
 fore. " The flesh is dead in me," says the modern 
 opponent of Paul ; but the lively motions of the flesh 
 that are often seen by the onlooker make him doubt 
 if the flesh knows it. The remedy in all things for 
 a believer is, to know Christ. 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 God hates the self-life dressed in sanctified 
 clothes as much as when it is dressed in rags. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 294 
 
DAY 
 IX 
 
 The sentence of death is on everything that is of 
 nature. But how many of us cherish it and try to 
 escape the sentence or to forget it! We do not 
 believe fully that the sentence of death is on us. 
 We must die daily. Jesus lived every day in the 
 prospect of the cross, and we, in the power of his 
 victorious Hfe being made conformable to his death, 
 must rejoice every day in going down with him into 
 death. Take an oak some hundred years old. How 
 was that oak born ? In a grave. A grave was made 
 for the acorn that the acorn might die. It died and 
 disappeared; it cast roots downward and shoots up- 
 ward, and now that tree has been standing one hun- 
 dred years in its grave. But all the time it has 
 stood in the very grave where it died it has been 
 growing higher and stronger and more beautiful. 
 All the fruit it ever bore and all the foliage that 
 adorned it year by year it owed to that grave in 
 which its roots are cast and kept. Even so we owe 
 everything to the death and grave of Jesus. Oh, 
 let us live every day rooted in the death of Jesus! 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 If a man is not willing to go to heaven by the 
 way of Calvary he cannot go at all. Many men 
 want a religion in which there is no cross, but they 
 cannot enter heaven that way. If we are to be dis- 
 ciples of Jesus Christ we must deny ourselves, and 
 take up our cross, and follow him. Do not think 
 that you will have no battles if you follow the Naza- 
 rene; many battles are before you. Men do not 
 object to a battle if they are confident that they 
 will have victory, and, thank God, every one of us 
 may have the victory if we will. D. L. Moody. 
 
 295 
 
DAY 
 X 
 
 How excellent is thy loving-kindness, God! therefore the 
 children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.— 
 Ps. xxxvi. 7. 
 
 Loving-kindness is love in action. " God is love." 
 Then Jesus Christ is loving-kindness, God manifest- 
 ing his love to us. Notice, " wings " is plural. The 
 wing of God's power is to me no protection. I am 
 afraid of power. Power let loose may destroy me. 
 In the thunderbolt there is power that kills. God's 
 omnipotence, viewed alone or linked ^vith his jus- 
 tice, gives me no comfort; but linked with his love 
 I find shelter beneath it. My danger is great in 
 proportion to the power that may be against me. 
 My safety is great in proportion to the power that 
 may be for me. God's power linked with his love is 
 for me; and I put trust under the shadow of the 
 wings of his love and power. A. C. Dixon. 
 
 People used to speak of God as a tyrant, and as 
 if to be in his hands was to be next to all that was 
 miserable and terrible. The hands that bled for 
 me on the cross mean only to bless me. hands 
 of the Crucified, shall I dread to intrust my life to 
 you? Nay; the misery of life will not be to be in 
 the hand, but to be outside the hand of God. Never 
 be afraid of God, unless you are sinning against him; 
 always believe that behind what seems difiicult and 
 mysterious there is a heart as true and tender as 
 the heart of the sweetest, gentlest woman that ever 
 pressed her child to her bosom. Nay; all the love 
 in all women's hearts together, compared to the 
 love of his heart, is as a glow-worm's torch com- 
 pared to the sun at noontide. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 296 
 
DAY 
 XI 
 
 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy 
 walls are continually before me.— Isa. xlix. 16. 
 
 Faithful Jews who were about to take a distant 
 journey employed an artist to grave or paint a pic- 
 ture of Jerusalem upon the palms of their hands; so 
 that when they were far away from the beloved 
 city of the sanctuary they had but to open their 
 hand and behold its memorial before them. In like 
 manner, our Lord has gone into a " land of far dis- 
 tances." But he too has carried inside the veil the 
 memorial of his beloved church. Those pierced 
 hands remind him of his cross and passion and of 
 the victory he has achieved over sin. And they are 
 busy hands; every day and hour they are recording 
 as with the graving of a diamond in the register of 
 God the names of some new souls born into the 
 kingdom of heaven. 
 
 George C. Needham. 
 
 Think what God is trying all the while to do for 
 us, and see if it is not beyond our greatest thought. 
 Christ is more than teacher. He is our divine Lord 
 and Saviour, able to save to the uttermost. Oh, if 
 the world were \^illing to take what he is so ready 
 to bestow! If we desired more we should receive 
 more. It is because our prayers are too narrow, 
 because we only want to fill the cup up within an 
 inch of the top, that we are poor; when w^e are will- 
 ing that the cup shall run over there comes a 
 springing out from heaven, a pouring down from 
 above of that which fills the cup from the great 
 wealth and mercy of our God. 
 
 Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 297 
 
DAY 
 
 xn 
 
 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask 
 what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.— John xv, 7. 
 
 God is the source of the spiritual electric energy, 
 and when we insulate ourselves from the world by- 
 prayer and communion with Christ it is precisely as 
 it is with filling a body with electric energy : the 
 spiritual power of God fills us. I have found in my 
 own life that there is a very close proportion be- 
 tween the time I spend in communion with God and 
 the amount of power that I have in dealing with 
 men. 
 
 R. A. TORREY. 
 
 Every prayer should be actuated by a love for 
 God and a desire to be used in his service. Every 
 prayer should be judged by this standard: Will it be 
 of use to the Lord God? Is it for his glory? " God, 
 give me health to-day." Why? "Oh, because I 
 shall feel better." Ah! that is not prayer; that is 
 only presumption. " Lord, give me an ability that 
 I have not now." What for? " Because I shall hold 
 a higher place in the world's estimation." That is 
 presumption. " Lord, help me to get such an edu- 
 cation as shall give me influence with men, that I 
 may be able to earn more money." It is tempting 
 God. " Lord, keep my family alive." " Lord- pre- 
 serve the life of my sick child, because I shall need 
 that child's love by and by in order to be happy 
 myself." It is tempting God. But the prayer that 
 says, " Lord, give me health that I may glorify thee; 
 give me wisdom that I may use it for thee; preserve 
 the life of my child that I may bring her up for thee" 
 is the prayer of faith. 
 
 Russell H. Conwell. 
 
 298 
 
DAY 
 
 xm 
 
 The hour cometh, and now is, when the true woishipers shall 
 worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh 
 such to worship him.— John iv. 23. 
 
 No idea of prayer reaches a higher point than 
 worship, which is the form which fills the Apoca- 
 lypse. The soul is lost in thought of God. What 
 new appreciation of adorable qualities! In Psalm 
 xxix., that psalm of nature where the creation is 
 seen as a temple, all nature is God's grand cathedral ; 
 the waters are the great organ with its deep dia- 
 pason, and the thunders peal forth like the colossal 
 pipes of the pedals; cyclones and whirlwinds are the 
 choir with majestic voices; the lightnings are the 
 electric lamps; giant oaks and cedars are the bow- 
 ing worshipers; and the psalmist says, "In his tem- 
 ple doth everything shout, Glory!" 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 In prayer there is worship, when a man just bows 
 do^\m to adore the great God. We do not take 
 enough time to worship. I hope to spend eternity in 
 worshiping God. 
 
 There is not only the worship of a king, but 
 fellowship as a child with God. Christians think 
 prayer is only asking and thanksgiving. If Christ 
 is to make me what I am to be I must tarry in 
 fellowship with God. I may put a poker in the fire 
 twenty times in the course of the day, and leave it 
 there two or three minutes each time, and it never 
 will be thoroughly heated. If you are to get the 
 fire of God's holiness and love and power burning in 
 your heart you must take more time in his fellow- 
 ship. Andrew Murray. 
 
DAY 
 XIV 
 
 Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.— 
 Matt, xxviii. 20. 
 
 Man when he promises for the future needs to 
 say, "I will do;" but God can say nothing stronger 
 than " I do " or " I am." Thus the promise of 
 promises of Jesus to his disciples as their ever- 
 present, all-sustaining Lord is, '' Lo, I am with you 
 alway;" not "Lo, I will be," but "Lo, I am." So 
 God's covenant promise to Israel to be their loving, 
 guarding, and guiding God for all time to come is 
 in the words, " I am Jehovah thy God, which brought 
 thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of 
 bondage." Henry Clay Trumbull. 
 
 The Lord said to Moses, " Say unto them, ' I AM 
 hath sent me.' " Some one has said that God gave 
 him a blank check and all he had to do was to fill 
 it out from that time on. When he wanted to bring 
 water out of the rock all he had to do was to fill out 
 the check; it was the same when he wanted bread; 
 he had a rich banker. God had taken him into 
 partnership with himself. D. L. Moody. 
 
 Herein it was that Israel sinned : they never could 
 take in the Godhead, I AM. They never could 
 realize that they were dealing with One to whom 
 past, present, and future are absolutely one. They 
 deigned to accept what God had accomplished, but 
 dared to doubt what God had promised. 
 
 The moment a man doubts the unknown future 
 he has boldly said to God, "Thou liest," and it is 
 the one sin there is no salvation for. Every sin can 
 be forgiven except blasphemy against the Holy 
 Ghost. H. W. Webb-Peploe, 
 
 300 
 
DAY 
 XV 
 
 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only 
 true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.— John xvii. 3. 
 
 Ignorance is the chief sin of our time. You say 
 unbelief is. I think not. You say the great need 
 is faith. But when we have intelligence we shall 
 have faith. We need knowledge of God. I do think 
 that people need most in this world to-day belief in 
 God. It is a very rare man that truly and deeply 
 believes in God. If you believe in God you see him 
 in everything, in the birds and flowers and bright- 
 ness and beauty as well as when the storms gather 
 and sorrow sweeps over you. If a man believes there 
 is a God his belief controls him all through his 
 being. Jesus said, " Let your light so shine before 
 men that they will glorify God." In order to make 
 other men think of God we must believe in him and 
 must have such a strong obedience coming out of 
 our belief that men will take knowledge of us that 
 we believe in God and know him. 
 
 Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 We don't want the faith that comes by seeing, 
 but the seeing that comes by faith. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 When Christ said to his disciples, " Have faith in 
 God," he did not mean, " Accept this moment all the 
 doctrines which I have been propounding to you," 
 though he well knew that that would follow from a 
 surrender to him. What he meant was that they, 
 personally, should surrender their lives in the abso- 
 lute confidence of an unwavering trust to God. 
 
 Robert E. Speer. 
 
 301 
 
DAY 
 
 XVI 
 
 God has given us powers, and he means that we 
 shall study to know what they are. Half the life- 
 blunders come from not knowing one's self. If we 
 overrate our abilities we attempt more than we can 
 accomplish; if we underrate our abilities we might 
 accomplish more than we attempt. In both cases 
 life loses just so much from its sum of power. Not 
 a few come to know themselves only through fail- 
 ures and disappointments. Strangers to their own 
 defects,— perhaps also to their own powers,— they 
 see h,ow they might have succeeded only when suc- 
 cess is finally forfeited. Their eyes open too late. 
 A Southern orator tells of a little negro who very 
 much wished to have a kitten from a new-born 
 litter, and whose mistress promised that as soon as 
 they were old enough he should take one. Too im- 
 patient to wait, he slyly carried one off to his hut. 
 Its eyes were not yet open, and in disgust he drowned 
 it. But subsequently, finding the kitten lying in 
 the pail dead, but with open eyes, he exclaimed, 
 "Humph! when you's alive you's blind; now you's 
 dead you see ! " Pity, indeed, if our eyes open only 
 when it is too late to make life of use! 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 Is your life what you want it to be? Is it satis- 
 factory? I hear people sometimes say in prayer- 
 meeting, " I want a few crumbs from the Master's 
 table." Well, you may have them if you want to; 
 crumbs are good for cats and dogs; but I am going 
 for the whole loaf. The Lord doesn't want his people 
 to live on crumbs; he is longing to give them a 
 whole loaf. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 302 
 
DAY 
 
 xvn 
 
 When men are puzzled about the doctrine of the 
 Trinity they would do well to consider their own 
 nature, and discover in the spirit, soul, and body the 
 trinity in unity of the one personality of the indi- 
 vidual. Man is like the Jewish temple: the most 
 holy place represented the spirit; the holy place, 
 where the priests did their work, the soul; and the 
 outer courts the body. In the unregenerate man 
 the holy of holies of the spirit, which was meant to 
 hold converse with God, is left dark and untenanted ; 
 or with some the holy of holies, v/hich was meant 
 for God, may be inhabited by the spirit of evil. I 
 am inclined to think that in most cases it is simply 
 untenanted, so that the natural man is a man the 
 holy of holies of whose spirit is empty; therefore 
 his nature is dominated entirely by the soul of his 
 natural life. We can easily understand, then, why 
 the body is not kept right, because nothing can 
 dominate the body but spirit. In regeneration the 
 Spirit of God becomes the Shechinah of the most 
 holy place, so that what before had been dark now 
 becomes illuminated. Even in a regenerate man 
 there is often failure because the man, whose 
 personality resides always in the soul, the holy 
 place, has the choice of living according to the 
 spirit in the holy-of-holies place, or according to 
 the flesh in the outer court, and chooses the latter 
 in preference to the former and so becomes a carnal 
 Christian. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 What this world wants is this doctrine thundered 
 out, regeneration by the power of the Holy Ghost. No 
 man is really born of God until he is brought into 
 harmony wdth God's plan, and then God can work in 
 him and through him. D. L. Moody. 
 
 303 
 
DAY 
 
 xvin 
 
 If you would go to heathen lands to work for 
 Christ first satisfy yourself fully as to the inspiration 
 of the Scriptures. Don't go to war with a quiver- 
 ful of arrows the shafts of which are partly hickory 
 and partly mullen stocks. If a missionary believes 
 the Scriptures are inspired only in patches the 
 heathen will trip up his heels as easily as if he were 
 standing on ice. When you point to them the stupid 
 cosmogony of their sacred books, and from thence 
 argue their unreliability as religious guides, they 
 will retort, " But you say there are scientific errors 
 in your Bible, and that the Word of your God is 
 contained in your Scriptures along with some rub- 
 bish. Now you know how to sympathize with us. 
 The divine truths of our religion are contained in 
 our " shasters." Unfortunately, our writers did not 
 know everything, as you say yours did not, and 
 some rubbish has crept into ours too." If you are 
 lame and halting then better stay at home. We 
 want strong and able-bodied men who know what 
 they believe and why they believe it and are ready 
 to assert it with vigor. William Ashmore. 
 
 What are soldiers good for if they don't know 
 how to use their weapons? What is a young man 
 starting out in the Christian work good for if he 
 does not know how to use his Bible? A man isn't 
 worth much in battle if he has any doubt about his 
 weapon, and I have never found a man who has his 
 doubts about the Bible who has amounted to much 
 in Christian work. I have seen work after work 
 wrecked because men lost confidence in the truth 
 of this old Book. D. L. Moody. 
 
 304 
 
DAY 
 
 XIX 
 
 I know of nothing which would be more ridiculous, 
 if it were not so lamentable and fraught with evil, 
 than to see a man \^ise in his own conceit go on the 
 cool assumption that the church, the Bible, Christen- 
 dom, and the great God himself have no rights ex- 
 cept such as first vindicate themselves to his lordly 
 reason. Suppose the village poetaster should so 
 treat "Paradise Lost," or the village architect 
 should express grave doubts as to the excellence of 
 the dome of St. Peter's. " Paradise Lost " and the 
 dome of St. Peter's would not feel it much, but it 
 would fix the grade of the architect and the poet. 
 
 Cyrus D. Foss. 
 
 I believe that all the philosophy and literary criti- 
 cism and the study of history, when rightly under- 
 taken, will constitute an overwhelming argument in 
 vindication of our belief in the Bible. I look for the 
 coming of a good time when men who now disparage 
 and despise and s^t at naught this Book mil treat it 
 as the inspired Word of God. 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 I would that every student of the Bible would 
 take the motto which Bengel took for his guidance 
 in study: "Apply thyself wholly to the Scriptures, 
 and apply the Scriptures wholly to thyself." Learned 
 critics are applying themselves wholly to the Scrip- 
 tures \vith microscopic intensity of search and re- 
 search, but they neglect the other half. We hear 
 of some people who are famous at taking a sword 
 and cutting up the Scripture, but we would like to 
 see the Scripture, which is itself a sword, go through 
 these men and cut some of them^ up. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 305 
 
DAY 
 XX 
 
 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
 God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know 
 them, because they are spiritually discerned.— 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
 
 No one can so well explain the meaning of words 
 as he who wrote them. Tennyson could best ex- 
 plain some of his deeper references in " In Memo- 
 riam." If, then, you wish to read the Bible as you 
 should, make much of the Holy Ghost, who inspired 
 it through holy men. As you open the book lift up 
 your heart and say, "Open thou mine eyes, that I 
 may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Speak, 
 Lord; for thy servant heareth." F. B. Meyer. 
 
 The natural man discerneth not the things of the 
 Spirit. This Bible is burglar-proof against un- 
 sanctified learning that seeks to penetrate into its 
 mysteries. The violent have attempted to take it 
 by force, but the Holy Spirit alone has the key to 
 this treasure-house, and he only knows the combi- 
 nation of prayer and faith by which it can be 
 unlocked and all the treasures of wisdom and 
 righteousness therein stored be found out and appro- 
 priated. God forbid that I should despise any kind 
 of learning. On the contrary, I put my strong em- 
 phasis on the importance of it. Modifying Augus- 
 tine's phrase, let us remember that the sufficiency 
 of learning is to discover that learning is insuffi- 
 cient. Your responsibility is that you make the 
 Spirit of God your private tutor, and then you can- 
 not be led very far astray. It is one thing not to 
 know, it is another thing through the pride of un- 
 sanctified learning to be led to forget, that the 
 Word of God is not to be comprehended by secular 
 learning but by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 306 
 
DAY 
 XXI 
 
 Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy 
 men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. — 
 2 Pet. 1. 21. 
 
 The consummate prophecy of Scripture is the 
 Messianic. These prophecies were sufficiently re- 
 mote in time to have made it impossible for the pro- 
 phets to have influenced the results. Between the 
 two Testaments was a space of four hundred years. 
 There was absolutely no inspired prediction between 
 Malachi and Matthew. As to minuteness of de- 
 tail, Canon Liddon found three hundred and thirty- 
 three distinct predictions concerning the Messiah. 
 In order to estimate the chance of all these partic- 
 ulars meeting in one person, you must raise i to 
 the three hundred and thirty-second power, which 
 is 8 5,ooo,oo o;oiro, i.e., there is but one chance in 
 85,000,000,000! The promise that the seed of the 
 woman shall bruise the head of the serpent is the 
 germ of all Messianic prophecy. If there was to 
 be but a single fruit to appear on a tree of over 
 three hundred branches, and you must determine 
 the particular twig on which that fruit should ap- 
 pear, every new ramification of the branches would 
 make it more difficult to determine the exact twig. 
 Of Adam's sons one must be the progenitor of the 
 Messiah, and Seth is chosen. Noah has three sons; 
 Japheth is chosen. Abraham has two sons; Isaac 
 is chosen. Isaac has two sons; Jacob is chosen. 
 Jacob has twelve sons, and one of the twelve must 
 be Christ's ancestor— Judah. So the lineage rami- 
 fies indefinitely until we reach the very household in 
 which Jesus Christ was born. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 307 
 
DAY 
 
 xxn 
 
 In looking at the stars through a great telescope, 
 it is necessary first to put out every light until you 
 are left in total darkness. Every light sets the air 
 in motion, and disturbs the focus, and blurs the 
 vision of the stars. How often our vision of God is 
 blurred and dimmed by the flames of self-conscious- 
 ness and sordidness that float around us! How 
 many times we have to put out the light of self- 
 seeking, earthly ambition and false pride of position 
 in order to look upward, and in the clear still air 
 know whither God's lights are leading us and what 
 God will have us to do! 
 
 W. H. P. Faunce. 
 
 It is difficult to convince men of anything which 
 they do not wish to believe. They demand evidence, 
 and what would afford proof to an unbiased mind is 
 often quite insufficient to convince men against 
 their will, while that which harmonizes with pre- 
 conceived opinion is often accepted with little or no 
 evidence. The narrower men are, the more difficult 
 is it to convince them of anything which runs 
 counter to their prejudices. 
 
 JosiAH Strong. 
 
 It is supposed by some, altogether falsely, that 
 faith is opposed to reason and that Christ does not 
 claim intellect. His very name is the Word and the 
 wisdom of God, and he demands the cultivation of 
 all our faculties, and he bids us prepare ourselves 
 in order that we may do his work. 
 
 A. C. A. Hall. 
 
 308 
 
DAY 
 
 xxin 
 
 My friends, the outcome is bright. Men will 
 keep on until they shall have circumnavigated the 
 globe of thought,— these earnest men, these philo- 
 sophical adventurers, these scientific discoverers,— 
 and when they come back, as they surely will, to the 
 old land from which they have set out, they will say 
 with an earnestness they never knew before, " We 
 believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of 
 heaven and earth." And when they get so far 
 they will go on and say, '' And in Jesus Christ, his 
 only Son." The day of reconciliation between 
 science and religion is not afar off. High authori- 
 ties in philosophy tell us that agnosticism is on the 
 wane. We look for the coming of the day which 
 shall end the long estrangement, when science shall 
 confess, " W^e know in part, but then we know," and 
 religion will reply, " We know, but then we know 
 only in part." Francis L. Patton. 
 
 We sometimes look upon this world and say, " It 
 is no use; the race is corrupt and there is no 
 promise." Stop ! the promise is not in the men, but 
 in the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Be 
 faithful, consecrated, hopeful. Some day the world 
 will be filled with the righteousness and peace of 
 God. George C. Lorimer. 
 
 Thank God, the stone cut out of the mountain is 
 growing and is going to come into collision with the 
 image, which will become like the chaif of a thresh- 
 ing-floor. My friends, I am no pessimist, and I thank 
 God for the outlook. I believe the time is coming 
 when the voice of men will only give out the echo 
 of God's voice, when Jesus Christ shall come to sway 
 his scepter over the whole earth. D. L. Moody. 
 
 309 
 
DAY 
 XXIV 
 
 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteous- 
 ness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.— Rom. xiv. 17. 
 
 The kingdom of God is righteousness; that repre- 
 sents the work of the Father. The foundations of 
 his throne are justice and judgment and peace; 
 that is the work of the Son; he is our peace, our 
 Shiloh, our rest. The kingdom of God is peace; not 
 only the peace of pardon for the past, but of perfect 
 assurance as to the future. Not only the work of 
 atonement is finished, but the work of sanctification 
 also is finished in Christ. The new man has been 
 completed, and I need only live out my life in him; 
 and then, if a kingdom is established in righteous- 
 ness, there can be perfect rest. Then if there be 
 peace without and within there can be also joy, the 
 work of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 According to God's idea, the first element of re- 
 ligion is righteousness, and there are two kinds of 
 righteousness spoken of in the Bible: the imputed 
 righteousness and the imparted righteousness. The 
 imputed righteousness is that which was lived out 
 by the Lord Jesus Christ in a life of perfect devotion 
 to God and in a death that was substitutionary, and 
 that righteousness is imputed to every one who puts 
 his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. The imparted 
 righteousness is that which is imparted to the soul 
 after it has believed in Jesus Christ, whereby it 
 grows in fitness for the life here and for the inher- 
 itance of the saints in glory. 
 
 W. W. Moore. 
 
 310 
 
DAY 
 XXV 
 
 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on 
 thee: because he trusteth in thee.— Isa. xxvi. 3. 
 
 There is the secret of peace; that was the source 
 of Daniel's peace in the den of iions. 
 
 I can imagine Daniel walking through the streets 
 of Babylon on his way to be cast to the lions, ac- 
 cording to the king's decree. He was the greatest 
 character that ever walked the streets of Babylon. 
 He moved like a giant, like a conqueror; they cast 
 him to the lions. There was no music in the palace 
 that night. The king was in great distress ; he could 
 not sleep; and early the next morning you could 
 see an unusual sight— the king abroad in his char- 
 iot; and you could hear the chariot go rattling over 
 the pavements of the streets. What does it mean? 
 I see that royal chariot sweeping up to the lions' 
 den, and the king goes to the mouth of the den and 
 cries to Daniel, " Is thy God, whom thou servest 
 continually, able to deliver thee from the mouths of 
 the lions?" And a voice comes up out of that 
 den: "My God has sent his angels and shut the 
 mouths of the lions." The calmest man in all Baby- 
 lon that night, in my opinion, was Daniel. He 
 prayed with his face toward Jerusalem, and after 
 prayer took a lion for a pillow and lay down to 
 sleep with a clear conscience. The king took him 
 with him back to the palace, and then sent out a 
 decree that the one hundred and twenty should be 
 cast into the lions' den, and they were all devoured 
 before ever they came to the bottom of the den. 
 "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked," 
 but the man who trusts in the Lord need never be 
 troubled. D. L. Moody. 
 
 311 
 
DAY 
 XXVI 
 
 Christ came not alone to preach the gospel, but 
 to be the gospel. When the cross was taken down 
 scarcely any one knew that Jesus had ever been in 
 the world, and his own disciples did not know clearly 
 and fully why he had come. One thing was done to 
 make the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ 
 known to the world, and that was done in one in- 
 stance by the Sea of Galilee. Jesus wanted some- 
 thing done, but he never hired any one and he never 
 will. He said to Peter, "Simon, do you love me 
 enough to do anything just because you love me?" 
 Simon answered, "Lord, I do." Then Jesus said, 
 "Simon, I have died for the world, and the world 
 does not know it. Do you see those sheep? They 
 are my sheep; I have been feeding them; and now I 
 am going out of the world. Simon, will you take 
 care of these sheep?" "Yes, Lord." "I shall de- 
 pend upon you, Simon; those sheep will starve to 
 death if you do not feed them." " But, Lord, what 
 is John going to do?" "No matter about John. 
 Simon, will you feed my sheep?" Simon said, 
 " Lord, I will." Then Jesus went to heaven with no 
 more anxiety; and if, when he reached heaven, some 
 archangel had said, " Son of God, thou didst die for 
 the world; does the world know it?" "Scarcely 
 any one." "What arrangement have you made?" 
 " Simon said he would go and tell the world that I 
 have died." "And you trusted Simon?" "Yes." 
 "But, Lord, you might as Avell never have left 
 heaven if Simon fails you." " I know it. I depend 
 upon him." Jesus knew that love never faileth, and 
 so he went calmly to his eternal home. Then the 
 Holy Spirit came, and men witnessed and preached. 
 Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 312 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvn 
 
 It seems to me as if there has been but one in- 
 stance of faith. Jesus Christ went to heaven, not 
 calling legions of angels, but trusting a handful of 
 fishermen to tell men of his death on the cross for 
 them. No men were truer than they; before those 
 men had left the world there was scarcely a tribe 
 upon the earth that had not heard of the redeeming 
 love of the world's Saviour. It needed but to carry 
 it on a little longer, and long, long ago the whole 
 world would have heard the story, and foreign mis- 
 sions would never have been known. 
 
 But there came a time when the men disappointed 
 this trust. The shepherds began to feed the sheep 
 a little less, and presently the work of shepherds 
 was to make the sheep feed them. An old writer 
 has said that in the early days of the church they 
 had wooden chalices and golden bishops, but now 
 the church has golden chalices and wooden bishops. 
 One of the popes said, " The time has gone by when 
 the church had to say, ' Silver and gold have I none.' " 
 "Yes," was the answer; "and the time has gone by 
 also when the church can say, ' In the name of Jesus 
 of Nazareth, rise up and walk.' " 
 
 Hear the appeal of Jesus Christ to you and to me: 
 " Do you love me ? " " What is the salary? " " I 
 do not give any salary." A m.an may well count the 
 cost, for you know what is coming next: "Do you 
 love me more than money, more than ease, more 
 than life?" And when one replies, "Lord, thou 
 knowest that I love thee," there is always one an- 
 swer: "I died for that man, and he does not know 
 it; go and tell him." There are thousands of men 
 and women who are without God and without a Sa- 
 viour; go tell them. Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 313 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvm 
 
 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.— James iv. 8. 
 
 There is not a moment, not a talent, not a possi- 
 bility of our being that should not be consecrated 
 entirely to God and that should not be surrendered in 
 tender, grateful, humble submission to his authority. 
 We should feel that we could not afford to go out 
 into the world and engage in its pleasures, its pur- 
 suits, and its ambitions, not because we have not 
 the money, but because we cannot afford the peril, 
 the temptation, the risk to the soul's peace and 
 progress. Our ambition, our pleasure, should be to 
 get nearer to God. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 God is the critic of the thoughts and intents of 
 the heart, and I hardly can conceive of a better way 
 of achieving saintliness than every night to sit still 
 and let God say to you whatever he has to say. By 
 the touch of his Spirit he seeks to mold men, but 
 you must give the Spirit of God time. More bless- 
 ing has been obtained among the hills and woods 
 about Keswick than in the tent, though it has been 
 the scene of the meeting of God and the soul in 
 thousands of cases. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 Conversion and consecration stand in marked con- 
 trast. In conversion the believer receives the tes- 
 timony of God and sets his seal to it that it is true. 
 In consecration God receives the gift we place upon 
 the altar and sets his seal upon the believer that he 
 is true. 
 
 J. Wilbur Chapman. 
 
 314 
 
^^^iJ^±^ DAY 
 
 S^<^ XXIX 
 
 And we know that all things work together for good to them 
 that love God, to them who are the called according to his pur- 
 pose.— Rom. viii. 28. 
 
 How wonderfully blessed to have everything that 
 happens to me a pure blessing! A man may curse 
 at me, an accident may injure me terribly, I may be 
 brought to poverty; but if I once learn that there is 
 the blessing of God in everything, what a life of 
 blessing and love and joy unspeakable I shall have! 
 
 God sent the storm when Jonah v\^ent aboard the 
 ship ; God appointed a great fish to swallow him, and 
 afterward to cast him out; God caused the hot wind 
 to blow when the sun was sending down its scorch- 
 ing rays upon Jonah; God made the gourd to grow, 
 God sent the worm to kill the gourd, and God sent 
 the east wind to distress Jonah. If I am a child of 
 God every circumstance of my life, every comfort 
 and every trial, comes from God in Christ. So if I 
 give up my whole life to Jesus and say, "Lord, I 
 want grace to believe that thou art overseer," noth- 
 ing really harmful can touch a hair of my head. 
 
 The secret of the Christ-life is this: such a con- 
 sciousness of God's presence that, whether Judas 
 came to betray him or Caiaphas condemned him 
 unjustly or Pilate gave him up to be crucified, the 
 presence of the Father was upon him and within 
 him and around him, and man could not touch his 
 spirit. That is what God wants to be to us. God 
 first says to Moses, *' I ^vill bring you out," and then, 
 "I will bring you in." Ah, God be praised! he has 
 brought many of us out of the unconverted state; 
 but has he brought us into the life of abiding com- 
 munion? I fear not. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 315 
 
DAY 
 XXX 
 
 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.— 
 1 Cor. vii. 23. 
 
 Jesus Christ has bought us with his blood, but 
 alas! he has not had his money's worth. He paid 
 for all, and he has had but a fragment of our energy, 
 time, and earnings. Of old the mighty men of Israel 
 were willing to swim the rivers at their flood to come 
 to David, their uncrowned but God-appointed king. 
 And when they met him they cried, " Thine are we, 
 David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse." They 
 were his because God had given them to him, but 
 .they could not rest content till they were his also 
 by their glad choice. Why, then, should we not 
 say the same to Jesus Christ? 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 It is the hardest thing in the grammar of life to 
 learn to put *'mine" and "thine" in just the right 
 place. That is life's lesson. Paul had learned it when 
 he said, "Ye are not your own," and when he stood on 
 that deck in the storm and said, " God, whose I am 
 and whom I serve." The Christian man is the man 
 who has found to whom he belongs. The world 
 wants men who know where they belong and to 
 whom they belong. 
 
 W. W. Moore. 
 
 One may use that which has been dedicated and 
 belongs to God, but in doing so he robs God. Ye 
 are not your own. Ye have been bought with a 
 price, and the price is the precious blood of Christ; 
 and ye were sealed with a seal, which is the Spirit 
 of God. 
 
 J. Wilbur Chapman. 
 
 816 
 
DAY 
 XXXI 
 
 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 
 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also 
 appear with him in glory.— Col. iii. 3. 
 
 There are three truths upon which I try to live 
 every day: "I have died;" "My life is hid with Christ 
 in God;" and "When Christ, who is my life, shall 
 be manifested, I also shall be manifested with him 
 in glory." Do you believe that? If you have not 
 set to your seal that God is true in these great 
 statements, oh, for the Spirit of God to seal them 
 upon your heart! 
 
 Marcus Rainsford. 
 
 Our life is a trust, not a gift; let us use it ac- 
 cordingly. Robert E. Speer. 
 
 Some men talk of holiness as if it meant that it 
 was wrong to laugh, be bright, engage in manly 
 sports, play the piano, read any book but the Bible, 
 or follow certain pursuits for which we have natural 
 aptitudes. I believe that God in his Word will not 
 contradict the nature which he has given, and that 
 which is wrong in us is not our natural aptitudes, 
 but the self-life around which those aptitudes re- 
 volve. The life which God desires his children to 
 live is not a life of denial of anything which God 
 has imparted, but the transference of these from 
 the pivot of self to the pivot of not self, w^hich is 
 Jesus Christ, incarnate love. The man who enters 
 this life is still a bright companion, a manly athlete, 
 still enters into all that home and friendship and 
 life may mean ; but everything is hallowed, elevated, 
 ennobled, because revolving evermore round the will 
 of Jesus Christ. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 317 
 
In the secret of his presence how my soul delights to 
 
 hide! 
 Oh, how precious are the lessons which I learn at 
 
 Jesus' side! 
 Earthly cares can never vex me, neither trials lay 
 
 me low; 
 For when Satan comes to tempt me, to the secret 
 
 place I go. 
 
 When my soul is faint and thirsty, 'neath the shadow 
 of his wing 
 
 There is cool and pleasant shelter and a fresh and 
 crystal spring; 
 
 And my Saviour rests beside me, as we hold com- 
 munion sweet: 
 
 If I tried I could not utter what he says when thus 
 we meet. 
 
 Only this I know: I tell him all my doubts, my griefs, 
 
 and fears. 
 Oh, how patiently he listens! and my drooping soul 
 
 he cheers. 
 Do you think he ne'er reproves me? What a false 
 
 friend he would be 
 If he never, never told me of the sins which he must 
 
 see! 
 
 Would you like to know the sweetness of the secret 
 
 of the Lord? 
 Go and hide beneath his shadow; this shall then be 
 
 your reward. 
 And whene'er you leave the silence of that happy 
 
 meeting-place, 
 You must mind and bear the image of the Master 
 
 in your face. 
 
 Ellen Lakshmi Goreh. 
 
 318 
 
iMontb of iJ^oveniber 
 
 "Blue Geuiiaiis 
 J. Hudson Taj'lor CcHhcdral Tines 
 
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the 
 Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit 
 of Christ, he is none of his.— Rom. viii. 9. 
 
 In the matter of consecration God said to an 
 Israelite, " Now, if you wish to fully consecrate your 
 life to me, to separate yourself unto the Lord, you 
 are at liberty to do so for any period that you de- 
 sire." The vow of a Nazarite might be taken for a 
 year, or for five or seven years, for a half or a whole 
 lifetime. God seemed to say, " You may just go in 
 for as much consecration and blessing as you have 
 the heart to." But under the new covenant God 
 would have us all to recognize all through our Chris- 
 tian life that we are not our own, that we are bought 
 with a price, and that he has a rightful claim to all 
 we have and to all we are. 
 
 In like manner, under the old covenant the Holy 
 Spirit was given for special service on special occa- 
 sions, but it was needful for the receiver to pray, 
 "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." The Spirit 
 was given to Saul, but was taken away, and we might 
 find other illustrations of the same truth. But to 
 the believer under the new covenant the Spirit is 
 given as a seal upon a document, never to be re- 
 moved—as an earnest not to be recalled until the 
 redemption of the purchased possession. We may 
 grieve the Spirit and lose the benefit of his guidance, 
 but the Spirit does not leave the believer. What we 
 want is to have the open ear always ready to hear 
 and to obey the precious One who has taken his 
 abode within us. 
 
 J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 319 
 
DAY 
 
 n 
 
 . Consecration is not the act of our feelings, but of 
 our will. Do not try to feel anything. Do not try 
 to make yourself good or earnest enough for Christ. 
 God is working in you to will, whether you feel it or 
 not. He is giving you power to will and do his good 
 pleasure. Believe this and act upon it at once, and 
 say, " Lord Jesus, I am willing to be thine;" or if you 
 cannot say as much as that, say, " Lord Jesus, I am 
 willing to be made willing to be thine forevermore." 
 Consecration is only possible when we give up our 
 will about everything. As soon as we come to the 
 point of giving ourselves to God we are almost cer- 
 tain to become aware of the presence of one thing, 
 if not of more, out of harmony with his will. Every 
 room and cupboard in the house, with the exception 
 of this, thrown open to the new occupant; every limb 
 in the body, but one, submitted to the practised hand 
 of the good Physician. But that small reserve spoils 
 the whole. To give ninety-nine parts and to with- 
 hold the hundredth undoes the whole transaction. 
 Jesus will have all or none. Who would live in a 
 fever-stricken house so long as one room was not 
 exposed to disinfectants, air, and sun? Who would 
 undertake a case so long as the patient refused to 
 submit one part of his body to examination? Who 
 would become responsible for a bankrupt so long as 
 one ledger was kept back? The reason that so 
 many fail to attain the blessed life is that there is 
 some one point in which they hold back from God 
 and concerning which they prefer to have their own 
 way and will rather than his. This one little thing 
 mars the whole, robs them of peace, and compels 
 them to wander in the desert. 
 
 F, B. Meyer, 
 
 320 
 
DAY 
 
 m 
 
 There are three grades of Christian life. There 
 is, first of all, the dissatisfied life; the life that knows 
 there is something which it does not possess; the life 
 that is perpetually discontented, and rightly so, with 
 itself. There is, second, the life that is half and 
 half, that now and then rises up to the Mount of 
 Transfiguration, and then paces for long seasons over 
 weary wastes of whitened ashes. There is a third 
 life of satisfaction and contentment, of peace and 
 power and rest; the life that has made Jesus Christ 
 its one object; the life that every man lives who is 
 able to say, in the fine phrase of Ignatius, " Christ, 
 thou art ' my inseparable life.' " The soul that has 
 made Christ its one object has entered into rest and 
 has entered into power; it has entered into a life of 
 activity which no foe can withstand, and of content- 
 ment which no storm can ruffle; for over all the seas 
 where it voyages speaks that voice which quieted 
 the turbulent waves of the Tiberian Sea: " Peace, be 
 still." Nothing can overcome or disturb the soul 
 that is hid with Christ in God and has made Christ 
 the one object of its life. Robert E. Speer. 
 
 The difference in men is the way in which the 
 truth gets hold of them and passes through them. 
 The electric current passes through the wire easily 
 and the wire is unaffected by it; but the carbon-point 
 in an electric light holds the current and is deeply 
 possessed by it; hence there flashes out the brilliancy 
 of an arc-light. So the man that not only lets truth 
 pass through him, but is charged, possessed, and 
 held by that truth, becomes a point where truth is 
 manifested and vivified. Wilton Merle Smith. 
 
 321 
 
DAY 
 IV 
 
 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see 
 me.— John xiv. 19. 
 
 When the sun goes down our hemisphere does not 
 see it any more, but the moon sees it all night long, 
 and the moon takes the sun's light and throws it 
 down upon us. When the Sun of Righteousness set 
 behind the hill of Olivet the world saw him no more; 
 but the church, because it is seated in heavenly- 
 places in Christ, all the night long sees the Sun, and 
 throws the light upon the world through the Holy 
 Ghost. The world receives what light it has from 
 the church, and the church receives it from Jesus 
 Christ. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 Only Christ can influence the world; but all that 
 the world sees of Christ is what it sees of him in the 
 life of his followers. ... So that a Christian's use- 
 fulness depends solely upon his relationship to Christ 
 and the accuracy with which he reflects the divine 
 likeness. Henry Drummond. 
 
 Those little things which fill up our lives when 
 relaxation comes are spiritual tests. Do we choose 
 spiritual pleasures, or are we living on unspiritual 
 things? Robert E. Speer. 
 
 What is needed in the church is simplicity of 
 worship, a pure gospel, fervent prayer, unity of work, 
 godly men, beauty of holiness, and prayer for return 
 of the Holy Spirit. Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 We talk about drawing ministers; what we want 
 is a few more drawing church-members! 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 322 
 
;?2-2^ DAY 
 
 V 
 
 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: 
 the night cometh, when no man can work,— John ix. 4. 
 
 This world is a poor enough place for selfishness, 
 but it is a glorious place for denying self. The op- 
 portunities for doing good in this world are far be- 
 yond those in heaven. A very little light goes a 
 great way; so shines a good deed in a naughty world. 
 A rushlight in a humble home may guide a wanderer. 
 In the true spirit of consecration there is light. It 
 is a great thing to give light, even if it is in the 
 humblest home and goes no farther. But it does go . 
 farther. The daybreak is a jojiu] prospect, but not 
 for those whose lights have smoked and died to ashes. 
 " If only I had let it blaze in the night, how many 
 wanderers it might have guided!" you lament. 
 "Work, for the night is coming;" but better yet is, 
 " Work, for the night is past." Make good use of 
 the night while it lasts. The light of love is greatly 
 needed. There should be no limit to great-hearted- 
 ness. J. Monro Gibson. 
 
 Christians are constantly praying that they may 
 hear, " Well done," when the Lord comes to reward 
 his servants, while, as a matter of fact, they are do- 
 ing nothing. They talk about entering into rest, but 
 what are they going to rest from? A beautiful verse 
 in Thessalonians referring to the rest of the saints 
 is, "Those that are laid to sleep through Jesus." 
 Dives was tormented with insomnia. If he had been 
 late to dinner because he was looking after Lazarus's 
 family, and had clothed a thousand children among 
 the poor, he might have had sleep; but because he 
 was self-centered he could get none. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 323 
 
DAY 
 VI 
 
 The Bible is the most practical book in the world. 
 It flies straight as an arrow to its mark and wastes 
 no time on side issues. Its one design is to bring 
 men into right relations to God, and so to save them 
 from their sins and guide them into heaven. There- 
 fore it is not a revelation of all religious truth; it 
 reveals only what we need to know for our salvation. 
 Consequently, also, it contains many statements 
 which present only partial truths. As a rule, they 
 present facts, not reasons; duties, and not the phi- 
 losophy of religion. Hence there are many omissions 
 of what would interest us greatly as to the history 
 of the past, as to science, as to the biography of 
 great men. Addison P. Foster. 
 
 When Kepler was seeking to discover the true law 
 of planetary motion, he made seventeen successive 
 experiments before the hypothesis was applied which 
 disclosed the true path of a planet's orbit. In the 
 endeavor to unlock the mysteries of planetary motion 
 he had tried seventeen different keys, and they would 
 not work; but at last he said, "I will suppose the 
 path of a planet around the sun to be not a circle, 
 but an ellipse, with the sun at one of the foci." 
 When he put that key in the lock the bolts were 
 thrown back, the doors that had been shut for mil- 
 lenniums flew open ; he flung up his hands in rapture 
 and said, "0 Almighty God, I am thinking thy 
 thoughts after thee." That is the way to study the 
 Bible. Take the biblical facts and seek to find God's 
 key. When you have found that, it will perfectly 
 unlock God's mysteries, and you will not need to go 
 hunting around for a human locksmith. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 324 
 
DAY 
 
 vn 
 
 The unity of the Bible is fourfold. First, the same 
 purpose runs through the Bible. The first two chap- 
 ters describe the creation of the first earth, the last 
 two chapters the creation of the new earth; the first 
 two the birth of man, the last two the birth of the 
 race; the first two the earthly Eden, the last two the 
 heavenly Eden. And all the Bible between is the 
 bringing of man from earth to heaven. 
 
 Second, there is the unity of the character of God. 
 He is always holy, pure, sin-hating, the eternal 
 Father, Saviour, and Comforter. 
 
 Third, the moral law of the Bible is always the 
 same. The ten commandments are just as binding 
 to-day as three thousand years ago, and as much en- 
 forced by the conscience of men. They smite every 
 sin and crime of the nineteenth century as they did 
 the sins of the past. The applications have been 
 different, but they have the same hold on human 
 nature. The ceremonial laws were not done away 
 with, but fulfilled in Christ, and the spiritual truths 
 thus taught are eternal truths. The laws are the 
 scaifolding that falls away, and the truth is the 
 temple that remains forever. 
 
 Fourth, there is a unity of the scheme of redemp- 
 tion running throughout the whole Bible, at first in 
 types and symbols, in ceremonies and forms, for the 
 training of the infancy of the race in the truths of 
 salvation, and at last in the life of the Son of God 
 and his atonement on the cross, to which all types 
 and sacrifices pointed, and in which all were fulfilled. 
 We will not understand fully the Old Testament 
 and its sacrifices till we see them in the light shining 
 from the cross, which they prefigured and foretold. 
 
 F. N. Peloubet. 
 
 325 
 
DAY 
 
 vm 
 
 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.— 
 John vii. 17. 
 
 Obedience, as Robertson puts it, is the spiritual 
 organ of knowledge, and if any man refuses to obey 
 what he knows, he shall know no more; whereas if 
 any man obeys what he knows, he shall be led 
 swiftly in the path of truth. 
 
 A. F. SCHAUFFLER. 
 
 The Bible rings with one long demand for obedi- 
 ence. The key-word of the Book of Deuteronomy is, 
 " Observe and do." The burden of our Lord's fare- 
 well discourse is, " If ye love me, keep my command- 
 ments." We must not question or reply or excuse 
 ourselves. We must not pick and choose our way. 
 We must not think that obedience in one direction 
 will compensate for disobedience in some other par- 
 ticular. God gives one command at a time; if we 
 obey this he will flood our soul with blessing, and 
 lead us forward into new paths and pastures. But 
 if we refuse we shall remain stagnant and water- 
 logged, make no progress in Christian experience, 
 and lack both power and joy. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 There is only one way to get to know God, and it 
 is along the path of obedience, along the path of 
 bowing our stiff knees, and opening our lockjawed 
 mouths, and praying out of our hearts, and giving 
 our entire obedience to his will. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 326 
 
DAY 
 IX 
 
 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, 
 and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.— 
 1 Thess. iv. 11. 
 
 Here St. Paul exhorts us to service conjoined 
 with silence, doing the best we can and saying noth- 
 ing about it. Some clocks strike the hours, and 
 some tell the time of day only with their hands. So 
 some Christians advertise their business, and others 
 do it and say nothing about it. Two texts ought to 
 be read together: "Do not sound a trumpet before 
 you," and "Let your light so shine." God wants 
 you to be ambitious to have good works that some- 
 body can see; light travels faster than sound, and 
 so, with Christians, you see the flash before you hear 
 the report if they are the right sort. The ambition 
 is, not that men may praise you, but that they may 
 glorify your Father which is in heaven. You thus 
 have an opportunity to be ambitious, and yet to be 
 sublimely humble. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 The first thing a man must do if he desires to be 
 used in the Lord's work is to make an unconditional 
 surrender of himself to God. He must consecrate and 
 then concentrate. A man who does not put his whole 
 life into one channel does not count for much, and 
 the man who only goes into work with half a heart 
 does not amount to much. We are living in an in- 
 tense age, and if a man is to succeed he must set 
 himself apart for the work and throw all his energy 
 into it. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 327 
 
DAY 
 X 
 
 The Bible has very little to say about the end of 
 its heroes and heroines, but very much about their 
 beginning. The death-bed, the parting scene, the 
 final rapture— these things find small space in the 
 Scriptures; but the divine summons to service is re- 
 lated almost everywhere with minute and definite 
 detail. What was the end of the life of the Apostle 
 Paul ? The last sentence in regard to him reads, "Paul 
 dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, . . . 
 preaching the kingdom of God, ... no man for- 
 bidding him." But the conversion of that apostle 
 with his summons to his apostolate is related three 
 times with wonderful and startling vividness. The 
 last sentence with regard to Peter is simply, " And 
 Peter departed and went into another place." But 
 can we ever forget how the young Messiah, w^alking 
 by the Sea of Galilee, summoned the young apostles, 
 Peter and Andrew, to follow after him? Peter was 
 never weary of telling of that. So of Moses it is 
 saidj " No man knoweth his sepulcher," but every 
 man knows his call. Did Amos pass away in peace ? 
 What were the closing scenes in the life of Ezekiel ? 
 What was the end of Jeremiah? The Bible does not 
 tell us; but every one of those prophets has related 
 with the utmost detail how at some time in his life 
 a divine hand was laid upon him, and a divine voice 
 was heard speaking to his soul. In short, the Bible 
 places tremendous emphasis on the fact that God 
 does summon men and women to specific forms of 
 Christian service, and that we may recognize his call. 
 
 W. H. P. Faunce. 
 
 S2g 
 
"^ XI 
 
 There are three passages in which Christ speaks 
 of the work we ought to do and where he teaches 
 the principle of the overflowing cup. They are very 
 remarkable. First, " As the Father hath sent me, 
 even so send I you." Are you willing to be sent 
 into the world as Jesus Christ was sent? We 
 shrink back. I believe that it is true, and yet it 
 is hard for me to believe that I am sent down into 
 the towTi where I live as Jesus Christ was sent into 
 the world. The next passage carries us a little 
 further; it teaches that if you go into the world 
 loving and trusting Christ you shall do the works 
 that he did, "and greater works than these shall 
 ye do." Have you worked any miracle to-day? We 
 talk about Christ's miracles. He said, "You shall 
 do greater ones." Think of that! Jesus opened 
 the eyes of a blind man, and he looked up and saw 
 the face of his Lord. Have you ever opened your 
 friend's eyes so that he looked up into the face of 
 Jesus? That is a greater thing. The other pas- 
 sage is the strangest of all. Christ said to the 
 Father, "The glory that thou gavest me I have 
 given them, . . . that the world may know that 
 thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me." I 
 believe with all my heart in the love of God. But 
 here we see his royal bounty. Let us be willing to 
 be loved as Christ is loved, and to love in return 
 with all the heart and more. 
 
 Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 We are workers together with God; do not let us 
 forget God. 
 
 Francis Murphy. 
 
 329 
 
^0-0^^^^^ 
 
 DAY 
 
 xn 
 
 Power belongeth unto God.— Ps. Ixii. 11. 
 
 It is only as we have power from on high that we 
 have spiritual power at all. Some people have a 
 good deal to say about the latent power that exists 
 in the church of God. There is no such thing as 
 power, either latent or expressed, in the church of 
 God. Power is just as distinct from the church as 
 steam is distinct from the engine that it moves, or 
 as life is distinct from the earth that seems to bring 
 it forth. 
 
 B. Fay Mills. 
 
 There is no such thing as a church of God in 
 which the Spirit of God does not preside. There 
 are a great many so-called churches of Christ which 
 I believe Christ utterly disowns because the Spirit 
 of God does not regulate those church organiza- 
 tions. They are mere churches of men— sometimes 
 religious clubs, sometimes benevolent societies, 
 sometimes social organizations, baptized with a re- 
 ligious name; but that alone is a church of God in 
 which the Spirit of God rules and presides, and 
 where his invisible headship is acknowledged and 
 reverently submitted to in the fear of God. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 The Holy Spirit must have the right atmosphere 
 to work in. You must have air to convey sound, 
 and you must have the Spirit in order to carry 
 home the truth to men's hearts. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 All Christians, like all Scripture, should be God- 
 breathed. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 330 
 
^^Z^ DAY 
 
 ^^ 
 
 xni 
 
 If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take 
 up his cross, and follow me. —Matt. xvi. 24. 
 
 I must deny myself and take Jesus himself as my 
 life; I must choose. There are two lives, the self- 
 life and the Christ-life; I must choose either of the 
 two. "Follow me," says our Lord; "make me as 
 your rule of conduct, give me your whole heart, 
 follow me, and I will care for all." 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 The clay has no option but to be what the potter 
 would make it; but, somehow, you and I possess the 
 marvelous power of saying "Yes" and "No" to 
 God. If you say " Yes," then you have the blessed- 
 ness of the beatitudes; if you say "No," "Woe to 
 him that striveth with his Maker!" God wants to 
 make you, but you have the power to resist, and 
 you have used it. 
 
 A great Christian worker, when dying, was asked 
 the secret of his saintliness. He modestly dis- 
 claimed any title to saintliness, but he said, "The 
 secret of my life is that I have said ' Yes ' to Christ." 
 I think I hear that clay saying " Yes " to the potter 
 every time he touches it. With all your heart say 
 " Yes " to Jesus Christ, and let him have a chance 
 to make you over again. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 We talk about being surrendered to the will of 
 God. When you get into your carriage you sur- 
 render yourself to the horse, but you hold the reins 
 and make him go where you want to. It seems that 
 we surrender to God's will, but try to hold the reins 
 and do God's will by doing our way. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 331 
 
DAY 
 XIV 
 
 There is more said in the Bible about praise than 
 about prayer. I believe it is just as important that 
 we sing with the Spirit as that we pray with the 
 Spirit or speak in the Spirit, and if we could have 
 all our worship in the Spirit, the Holy Ghost would 
 work not only while we were preaching and pray- 
 ing, but while we were singing. Many a church 
 has lost its power on account of the choir that has 
 not been in harmony with God. A godless choir 
 will keep the Holy Ghost from working in any 
 church, or a choir that sings in an unknown tongue. 
 
 We don't thank and praise God half enough. 
 That is one reason why so many of our churches are 
 so dull and gloomy. When churches get into a 
 backslidden state, they hire singers to stand away 
 up in some organ-loft and praise God for them. 
 How can we expect God to give us further blessings 
 if we don't thank him for what he has given us? 
 One of the best ways to wake a church up and start 
 a revival is to hold a praise-meeting. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 Cheerful tempers manufacture solace and joy 
 out of very unpromising material. They are the 
 magic alchemists which extract sweet essences out 
 of bitter herbs, like the dear old colored saint in 
 the smoky hut who was " glad of anything to make 
 a smoke with," and, though she had but two teeth, 
 thanked God that they were " opposite each other." 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 God can do no more for you than he has done. 
 All that God has is within your reach, but you must 
 learn to take it. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 332 
 
DAY 
 XV 
 
 The work of the hands and of the head are sub- 
 ordinate to that of the heart. If you have been re- 
 deemed by Christ, renewed by the Holy Ghost, and 
 your citizenship is in heaven, what is your principal 
 business? It is to tell others about Jesus Christ, 
 and bring them to the knowledge of his love and 
 of his grace. Whatever else you do must be sub- 
 ordinated to that, and it is a shame and scandal in 
 our nineteenth-century Christianity that so many 
 business men get and live and labor and save, as if 
 they understood that getting riches was the end of 
 their existence, instead of getting riches in order 
 to glorify God. I care not what your occupation 
 is,— you may be a carpenter at the bench, a black- 
 smith at the forge, a merchant behind the counter, 
 —your first business is to give the gospel to those 
 that have not heard it. Does it look as though we 
 regarded it as our principal business? 
 
 There are eight billions in the hands of Christians 
 in America; that is, invested for the most part in 
 bonds, mortgages, diamonds, silks, horses, carriages, 
 houses, furniture, pictures, and a thousand other 
 things— vastly more than in that which ought to be 
 the principal business of the Christian, giving the 
 gospel to the world. Some men say, "I believe 
 that the world is getting better and iDetter every 
 day," although they have milHons laid up, and yet 
 you cannot get twenty cents out of them for the 
 Lord's work. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 There is no other way to win a soul than by see- 
 ing in him one whom Christ loves, and whom Christ, 
 your Saviour, would have you win to him. 
 
 L. W. MUXHALL. 
 
 333 
 
DAY 
 XVI 
 
 Enthusiasm is the normal condition of a true 
 Christian. Sometimes in the month of February, 
 when the thermometer is away down at zero, an 
 ignorant man says, " The sun doesn't give as much 
 heat as usual; it must be burning out and cooling 
 down." But on the very day when the thermome- 
 ter is at zero, if you could send a pyramid of ice 
 fifty miles in diameter flying toward the sun at the 
 rate of two hundred and seventy millions of miles 
 in a minute, it would melt as fast as it flew. We 
 are at a different angle to the sun in February to 
 what we are in July. If you are a cold Christian 
 you are in a wrong attitude toward Jesus Christ; 
 away from duty, away from prayer, away in worldli- 
 ness, away in unbelief, indulging in some besetting 
 sin. When you get into the right position with 
 reference to Jesus Christ, the blessing will descend 
 upon you most abundantly. 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 A great many people are afraid of enthusiasm. 
 If a man is enthusiastic they raise the cry, "Zeal 
 without knowledge!" I should rather have zeal 
 without knowledge than knowledge without zeal. 
 I know men as wise as owls without any fire in 
 their souls. Enthusiasm means "in God"; and I 
 can't understand how any man can realize his stand- 
 ing before God and not be on fire three hundred and 
 sixty-five days in the year. Any man who goes into 
 business and doesn't throw his heart into it doesn't 
 succeed. Now why not go into the Lord's work as 
 earnestly as into athletics? 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 834 
 
DAY 
 
 xvn 
 
 The psalmist tells us that " the fool hath said in 
 his heart, No God, no God." It was a fool who said 
 it, and even a fool had to say it in his heart, for 
 even a fool's head knew better than that. Atheism, 
 of whatever kind, is a freezing void, an arctic breath, 
 a lifeless life, an atmosphere in which no wing can 
 soar, no heart can beat, and no soul rejoice. Athe- 
 ism can transform a rare day in June into a raw 
 day in January. R. S. MacArthur. 
 
 A good theological definition of the nature and 
 effects of the labors and mission of an atheist or 
 infidel is, "The devil's whetstone to sharpen dull 
 preachers on." I. D. Driver. 
 
 Honest doubt is simply the absence of conviction, 
 and its remedy is evidence; dishonest doubt comes 
 from moral alienation, and its only remedy is re- 
 pentance and submission to truth. You can no 
 more cure dishonest doubt by evidence than you 
 can cure cataract on the eye by an operation on the 
 ears. We should respect honest doubt which comes 
 from insufficient evidence; for we are not sponges 
 to be put a-soak in a tub of doctrine, and take up 
 whatever happens to be in the tub. But an honest 
 doubter will leave no stone unturned in order that 
 he may find out the truth. Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 The most mischievous infidelity is not that which 
 men read out of books, but that which they read out 
 of professedly Christian lives. When church-mem- 
 bers show that Christ is able to cast out the devil of 
 self, they will furnish the evidence which the skeptic 
 demands. Josiah Strong. 
 
 335 
 
DAY 
 
 xvm 
 
 A small circle of usefulness is not to be despised. 
 A light that doesn't shine beautifully around the 
 family table at home is not fit to take a long way 
 off to do a great service somewhere else. 
 
 J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 Some men are afraid of being too religious. 
 What we need to-day is men who believe down deep 
 in their soul what they profess. The world is tired 
 and sick of sham. Let your whole heart be given 
 up to God's service. Aim high. God wants us all 
 to be his ambassadors. It is a position higher than 
 that of any monarch on earth to be a herald of the 
 cross; but you must be filled with the Holy Ghost. 
 A great many people are afraid to be filled with the 
 Spirit of God— afraid of being called fanatics. You 
 are not good for anything until the world considers 
 you a fanatic. Fox said that every Quaker ought 
 to shake the country ten miles around. What does 
 the Scripture say? "One shall chase a thousand, 
 and two shall put ten thousand to flight." It takes 
 about a thousand to chase one now. It takes about 
 a thousand Christians to make one decent one now. 
 Why? Because they are afraid of being too reli- 
 gious. What does this world want to-day? Men— 
 men that are out and out for God, and not half- 
 hearted in their allegiance and service. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 What a cowardly religion it is to be afraid to 
 oppose the foe until Christ has vanquished him, and 
 then rush over his corpse and kick it and get all we 
 can from what Jesus has done, but never think of 
 him who gained the victory at the cost of his life. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 336 
 
DAY 
 XIX 
 
 Sanctification is making real in our lives our con- 
 dition in Christ. If we are sanctified in Christ, it is 
 our business to be sanctified in ourselves. Make 
 the real state correspond to the ideal. The gospel 
 is the opposite from morality. Morality says, " I 
 ought to be holy, therefore I will be holy." The 
 gospel says, "Ye are holy in Christ, therefore be 
 holy in yourself." A. J. Gordon. 
 
 God's Word tells us that the Holy Ghost is already 
 given as the universal income of the church. We 
 shall know the full extent of our inheritance when 
 we see Jesus as he is ; meanwhile, the Holy Ghost is 
 described as " the earnest of our inheritance." A 
 man may possess a splendid income and yet may 
 never have seen his magnificent property. What 
 we enjoy of our income is the measure of holiness 
 which we really possess and exhibit in this life. 
 Holiness is, so to speak, the expenditure of income 
 received through God's gift of the Holy Spirit. 
 Hereafter the inheritance will be ours in its full- 
 ness; then we shall know as we are known. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 A man who is filled with the Holy Spirit will have 
 an undoubted assurance of his sonship; moreover, 
 he will be cleansed from the power and love of in- 
 dwelling sin; he will be tempted, but will find that 
 his inner nature is like a tinder-box which has be- 
 come damp. The devil will still try to strike his 
 matches upon him, but the man will not respond; 
 he will be so saturated with the Holy Spirit that 
 there will be no response as in other days. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 337 
 
DAY 
 XX 
 
 It is more blessed to give than to receive.— Acts xx. 35. 
 
 This is true whatever be the character of our ac- 
 quisitions. There are riches of learning; but what 
 are the highest advantages of intellectual culture? 
 Is one to study and travel, read and write, simply for 
 the sake of being a student, a writer, a walking library 
 of knowledge or an encyclopedia of information? 
 Our instincts tell us that we are not to live simply 
 to acquire; society does not want mere effigies, 
 whether stuffed with bran or brains; but the world 
 wants men, living, working, serving others, who ac- 
 quire in order to impart, who have at heart the good 
 of the race. Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 Inquire diligently what blood mortgage there is on 
 your property in the interest of foreign missions— 
 how much you owe to the heathen because of what 
 you owe to Christ for redeeming you with his pre- 
 cious blood. It will go hard with you when your Lord 
 comes to reckon with you if he finds your wealth 
 invested in superfluous luxuries, or hoarded up in 
 needless accumulations, instead of being sacredly 
 devoted to giving the gospel to the lost. 
 
 A. J. Gordon. 
 
 The mistake of the Christian world is that they 
 expect to have the beatitudes without fulfilling the 
 conditions attached to them. How often do we pray 
 that we may have the kingdom of heaven without 
 thinking that we must first be poor in spirit. How 
 often do we pray for mercy, without first seeking to 
 be merciful. How often do we expect to be filled 
 because we hunger and thirst, when we have never 
 made sure that what we are hungering and thirst- 
 ing for is real righteousness. 
 338 Henry Drummond. 
 
DAY 
 XXI 
 
 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 
 gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such 
 there is no law.— Gal. v. 22, 23. 
 
 Let US not talk of the fruits of the Spirit; it is 
 the fruit of the Spirit— nine grapes in one bunch. 
 It is all of one Spu'it who desires to work one and 
 the same blessed fruit in us all. Here are nine 
 beautiful grapes, and they all relate to character, 
 rather than conduct. Perhaps you are longing for 
 splendid conduct, wanting to go and do some great 
 works. God wants you to begin with character. 
 The Holy Ghost works character; then he can fill 
 you for service; and assuredly God desires all to be 
 thus blessedly filled. It is no man's special preroga- 
 tive or gift, above his fellows, to be filled with the 
 Spirit. But remember that, while the world "re- 
 sists the Holy Ghost," even a child of God may 
 " grieve " and " quench " him. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 The Holy Ghost comes to make Christ an actual, 
 indwelling, always abiding Saviour. Christ saves 
 me with a full salvation. Whatever delay there 
 may be in the full enjoyment, if we trust Christ he 
 will make his word true. Then rest simply upon 
 the word of promise. Resting means abandoning 
 yourself to the object upon which you rest. Aban- 
 don yourself to the living Christ; let your faith rest 
 in the promise and the love of Jesus— that is your 
 only safety, but that is a sure foundation. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 339 
 
DAY 
 
 xxn 
 
 It is remarkable how often maps have played a 
 great part in the extension of the kingdom of God. 
 The little haystack prayer-meeting in Williamstown 
 was not simply a place for worship, but a place for 
 the study of the map of the world. Carey's cobbler 
 shop was not only a place for making shoes, not 
 only a place of prayer; it was a place for the study 
 of the world's map. If your map has less than the 
 world on it, then you cannot truly decide on your 
 field of Christian endeavor. I believe that no one 
 field is better than all other fields, and no one form 
 of Christian service is more acceptable to God than 
 all other forms. Suppose we should take Charles 
 H. Spurgeon, Phillips Brooks, David Livingstone, 
 and Joseph Neesima, could any of you take those 
 four lives and say which has been most blessed of 
 God? We should be content with the song of little 
 Pippa as she passed through the city singing: 
 
 "All service ranks the same with God: 
 . . . There is no last or first." 
 
 Every opening life should have before it the 
 knowledge of the entire kingdom of God. We 
 should keep before our eyes what God is doing in 
 all parts of the world, and remember that the field 
 is the world, and not simply a little part of it. The 
 field is not the church; the church is simply the 
 reapers thrust out into the field. God help us to 
 keep before ourselves the map of his entire extended 
 kingdom, and give us a heart that is willing to go 
 anywhere. Until we are willing to go anywhere we 
 are fit to go nowhere. 
 
 W. H. P. Faunce. 
 
W^^^-'^^^-^^ °^^ 
 
 '^'^^Kfe 
 
 xxni 
 
 There is great need at home. Let no man in his 
 zeal for the mission field minimize for one moment 
 the need for Christian activity in this land. With 
 a hundred thousand drunkards going down every 
 year to the drunkards' hell; with a million voters 
 unable to read the votes they cast; with four million 
 children out of the public schools; with thirteen 
 million children out of the Sabbath-school; with 
 seventy-five per cent, of our young men never en- 
 tering a Christian church— God knows there is need 
 enough for Christian work in the United States! 
 But enough for what? Enough to make us ashamed 
 that there should be so much after two centuries 
 of Christian activity. Yes, but not enough to 
 justify us in nullifying the last command of Christ. 
 Whose fault is it that there is so much work to be 
 done in the United States? Is it the Hindu's or 
 the Chinaman's or the African's fault? By what 
 right do we shut them out of the kingdom of God 
 because of a state of affairs for which they have no 
 responsibility at all? The gospel was not given to 
 them on condition that there was no need in Amer- 
 ica for the gospel. It was given to " every crea- 
 ture." Of course there is need for Christian work 
 in the United States, but at whose door is the re- 
 sponsibility to be laid? God's? "All power is 
 given unto me, and I hand it on to you." The 
 heathen's door? They have not knowTi there was 
 any such country as this. No man can hide him- 
 self behind the sophistry that God's peculiar love 
 for our nation, or the peculiar need for Christian 
 work in this land, justifies us in neglecting the 
 untold millions who wait that life whose dawning 
 maketh all things new. Robert E. Speer. 
 
 341 
 
DAY 
 XXIV 
 
 There is a world-wide difference between the falling 
 of a sinner and the stumbling of a saint. The sin- 
 ner habitually walks in the way of evil; the saint 
 has deliberately chosen the way of good. When 
 the sinner falls, he falls in the evil way that he is 
 pursuing; that is to say, his uniform course is sin- 
 ful, but his fall involves an outbreaking sin. Lust 
 has been in his heart, but it breaks out in open im- 
 purity; latent hate has been there, but it betrays 
 him into the sin of violence; secret avarice now be- 
 comes open overreaching or dishonesty. The sin is 
 in accordance with the habitual life w^hich he has 
 been leading. On the other hand, when the child 
 of God, who has chosen the good way and walked in 
 it thus far, stumbles into sin, this is not in accor- 
 dance with his ordinary walk; and when he is re- 
 covered by the grace of God, he pursues the same 
 path, in the same direction, as before his error. 
 The difference between these two is finely expressed 
 in the Bible. James says, " Brethren, if any of you 
 do err from the truth, and one bring him back." A 
 brother is supposed to be w^alking in the way of the 
 truth, and to make a temporary deviation from that 
 way; and some one is to call his attention to the 
 evil-doing, and bring him back into the right way. 
 Again, the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the 
 Galatians, "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in 
 a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a 
 one." Some old habit comes up, as it were, from 
 behind, and, when he is incautious and unheeding, 
 trips him up, so that he falls. Now you, says Paul, 
 which are spiritual, go and help him up on his feet, 
 and set him on his way again, with the help of your 
 S3mipathy and prayer. Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 342 
 
DAY 
 XXV 
 
 How many men and women of ability there are in 
 the church of whom we expect great things but 
 who always disappoint us! What is the matter? 
 Sin! Oh, if you would have a mighty work of God 
 in your own soul, ask God to search your heart, 
 and if God shows you some sin, give it up. No 
 matter if it is like tearing out your heartstrings, 
 out with it! It hinders a mighty work of God in 
 your soul. R. A. Torrey. 
 
 You are not responsible if disreputable persons 
 ring at your door; but for the persons whom you 
 systematically take into your home life you are 
 permanently responsible. Just so for the thought 
 that you dwell on, that you turn as a sweet morsel 
 under the tongue, that colors and shapes the whole 
 fabric of your life— for that thought you are respon- 
 sible. Merrill E. Gates. 
 
 Have you gained the victory over the foes with- 
 in you? There is jealousy. Would you overcome 
 that? If you are jealous of any one, do him some 
 good turn. There is a fable of an eagle which was 
 jealous of another that could outfly him. He saw 
 a sportsman one day, and said to him, " I wish you 
 would bring down that eagle." The sportsman re- 
 plied that he would if he only had some feathers to 
 put into his arrow. So the eagle pulled one out of 
 his wdng. The arrow was shot, but didn't quite 
 reach the rival eagle; it was flying too high. The 
 envious eagle kept pulling out more feathers until 
 he lost so many that he couldn't fly, and then the 
 sportsman turned around and killed him. My 
 friend, if you are jealous, the only man you can 
 hurt is yourself. D. L. MoODY. 
 
 343 
 
DAY 
 XXVI 
 
 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust 
 of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of 
 the world.— 1 John ii. 16. 
 
 Satan, the world, and the flesh are the three 
 mighty foes of the child of God. 
 
 Man, led captive by Satan at his will, either denies 
 his existence or clothes him with hoofs and horns, 
 a creature to be dreaded and shrunk from; instead 
 of remembering the warning that he appears as an 
 angel of light, presenting to each a tempting bait, 
 and luring on in pleasant paths the soul to hell. 
 Never will you be in so great danger from Satan as 
 when careless and unconcerned as to his existence, 
 and even questioning his personality. 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 The defiled imagination is the devil's sharp-shooter 
 secretly firing death-missiles into the souls of man 
 from the domain of hell. By it he fetters the will, 
 deadens the sense of right and duty, sears the con- 
 science, hardens the heart, and destroys the soul. 
 Using it as a banquet-table, he spreads before ap- 
 petite, passion, and lust every allurement for evil 
 which can be wrought out of the wine-cup, gam- 
 bling game, lottery device, race-track scourge, un- 
 hallowed love, evil reading, and kindred vices. The 
 defiled imagination fills the atmosphere of the soul 
 with reeking odors; it deposits a deadly poison in 
 the fountain of moral purity, corrupting the stream 
 of life. As sewer-gas poisons and infects the atmo- 
 sphere of the home, bringing disease and death in 
 its wake, so the debauched imagination, the sewer- 
 gas of hell, infects the domain of the mind. 
 
 Anthony Comstock. 
 
 344 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvn 
 
 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to 
 God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting 
 life.— Rom. vi. 22. 
 
 I have had people come to me again and again 
 and say, " I would not, of course, go to a polished- 
 floor ball, but I suppose there is no harm in a car- 
 pet-dance. I would not for anything go to see 
 some of the impure plays of which I read or hear, 
 but a good first-class moral theater I suppose is all 
 right for Christian people, is it not?" I cannot 
 stop to weigh worldly pleasures in the scales as a 
 chemist or a physician would measure out poisons; 
 to examine into the exact amount of grains that 
 make up the difference between morality and im- 
 morality. My Lord has called me to preach a life 
 full of privilege, when all is consecrated to God; a 
 life of honor and of delight, in giving up everjrthing 
 to the Master. Such quibbling distinctions are only 
 of the devil. We must not degrade our Christianity 
 thus. We must ask ourselves just this one thing: 
 " If I am consecrated to God from this day forward, 
 for time and for eternity, and my profession is real, 
 how can I prove it best by every action of my life, 
 by every thought and every word that proceeds 
 from me?" That is all that we need to inquire. 
 It is not how near v/e may sail to the world in its 
 pleasures and custom, and give the fag-ends to God 
 from a sense of duty and necessity, but how we can 
 delight our souls in him and his service. There are 
 many Christians who seem to live upon earth, and 
 now and then pay duty-calls in heaven; but the 
 true privilege of the Christian is to live in heaven, 
 and pay certain duty-calls on earth when God im- 
 poses the necessity. H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 345 
 
DAY 
 XXVffl 
 
 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the 
 head over all things to the church, which is his body, the full- 
 ness of him that filleth all in all.— Eph. i. 22, 23. 
 
 Why did God say that Christ was the head to the 
 church, which was his body ? In the first place, the 
 head is the seat of government so far as the body 
 is concerned. It is an indication of a diseased 
 spiritual condition when the church is not through 
 and through governed by Christ. What a mighty 
 work the church might accomplish through the 
 power of God if it should awaken to tha glorious 
 truth that the Lord Christ is head over all ! 
 
 Christ, as the head of the church, is the seat of 
 wisdom. What a glorious thought that all the wis- 
 dom locked up in the eternal being of Jehovah is ours! 
 
 Suppose it were possible for the various members 
 of the body to act independently of the headship. 
 Suppose my right foot were to walk, my left foot 
 to dance, my right hand to write a sermon, and my 
 left hand to play the banjo; I should at least make 
 a very suspicious-looking figure. Many a church in 
 the sight of God's angels is just as ridiculous as 
 that. In how many churches you find that instead 
 of every organization being guided by Christ's wis- 
 dom and working in harmony, every member is pull- 
 ing his own way. 
 
 Again, the head is the seat of the consciousness 
 of joy and pain! What a comfort to feel that, how- 
 ever small the position we hold, Christ feels our joy 
 and pain! In the physical body sometimes the brain 
 gets out of order, needs sleep, so that it does not 
 warn us of danger. But Christ never sleeps. 
 
 A. S. GUMBART. 
 346 
 
DAY 
 
 xxrx 
 
 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell 
 together in unity! — Ps. cxxxiii. 1. 
 
 A great commentator on the Psalms says that it 
 is not unity with one another that is meant, but 
 unity with the great Head which makes unity with 
 one another. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 Three things are essential to the communion of 
 the saints; first, their union to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ by his Holy Spirit on his part and faith on 
 their part; second, the simultaneous workings of 
 love and hope and joy and peace and life and full- 
 ness of assurance of salvation in the souls of all 
 believers; and third, the consciousness of the simul- 
 taneousness of these workings. 
 
 Nathaniel West. 
 
 " Many as the waves, but one as the sea," is the 
 motto of the true church of Christ. But equally 
 true is it of the works of God and the Word of God. 
 
 F. N. Peloubet. 
 
 Even among Christians, how often there are di- 
 visions and bitternesses among those who work to- 
 gether! The fruit of the Spirit, which is love, is 
 often absent in Christ's own people. Jesus Christ can 
 give us the victory over sin and can keep from ac- 
 tual transgression. I do not say that the root of sin 
 will be eradicated and that you will not have any 
 natural tendency to sin; but when the Holy Spirit 
 comes not only in his power for service as a gift, 
 but when he comes in divine grace to fill the heart, 
 there is victory over sin; power not to fulfil the 
 lusts of the flesh; ability to live peaceably among 
 our brethren. Andrew Murray. 
 
 347 
 
DAY 
 XXX 
 
 My cup runneth over.— Ps. xxiii. 5. 
 
 Now there is no use in a cup running over; if a 
 cup is full, that is enough; if it is nearly full, it is 
 more convenient; and yet it is the part of friendship 
 and it is the part of God to have the cup running 
 over. The Queen of Sheba came to see Solomon, 
 and when she went away the king, having given 
 her everything which she asked for, added some- 
 thing more; not because she had desired it, but be- 
 cause he had desired it; not out of her heart's seek- 
 ing, but out of his heart's wishing to bestow. The 
 part he wanted to give is called the "royal bounty"; 
 that is, the part that overflowed, and it was very 
 much the best part. 
 
 Christ always gives more than men ask for. At 
 Capernaum they brought a man sick with the palsy. 
 Jesus saw perfectly well what they wanted, but he 
 passed over that and said, " Son, be of good cheer; 
 thy sins are forgiven thee." That was enough. The 
 man would be able to walk in a few days; death 
 would heal him. But they were a little discon- 
 tented, so Jesus healed him— threw that in. 
 
 Then he came to that miracle by the Sea of Galilee. 
 The disciples had toiled all night and taken nothing. 
 In the morning Jesus told them where to cast the 
 net, and they drew it in full of fishes— a hundred 
 and fifty-three fishes. But then there was a fire of 
 coals on the shore and fish laid thereon. That last 
 fish is the running over of the cup. That was the 
 best fish of all. That is what Christ is doing all the 
 while. He gives us a hundred and fifty-three to 
 sustain life and then he adds another— that is his 
 royal bounty. 
 
 Alexander McKenzie, 
 348 
 
(Month of Tfec ember 
 
 Holly and Mistletoe 
 Theo. L. Curler Seniiimrv Grounds^ Winter Scene 
 
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.— Heb. xii. 1. 
 
 We all have what the negro called our " upsetting 
 sin," but we don't always know what it is. I will tell 
 you what is the besetting sin of every one of us. 
 When man fell from God originally he fell into 
 himself. There is your besetting sin— self. Self is 
 the house devil, after all, that :very one of us has 
 to fight; smooth-tongued, suave, hoodwinking us all. 
 " Oh, how much good I am doing! " Are you? Self 
 whispered that. When they told a noted preacher 
 at the foot of the stairs that he had preached a good 
 sermon he said, " The devil told me that before I left 
 the pulpit." I tell you, self in some form, my brother, 
 will be an enemy all the time to be fought. We 
 must get rid of self, or we can never be filled with 
 the Spirit. Charles G. Finney said that when he 
 went into the cities to begin his evangelistic work he 
 would sometimes preach a day or two without one 
 atom of power. What did he do? He just let him- 
 self down before God and prayed God to empty him 
 of Charles G. Finney, as it were, to take the bump 
 of self-reliance, self-trust, and self-seeking out of 
 him. "Seekest thou great things for thyself ?"— 
 even in Christian work, — ^' seek them not." Let 
 them be for Christ. When self is out there may be 
 an inpouring of the Spirit. Pray that you may be 
 so filled mth Christ that there shall not be room for 
 the house devil of self. 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 849 
 
DAY 
 
 n 
 
 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spir- 
 itual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.— Gal. vi. 1. 
 
 There we see two marks of the spiritual man: 
 he will be a meek man and he will have power and 
 love to help and restore those that are fallen. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 Brethren, we are members one of another. Why, 
 then, do we hurt and annoy one another? There 
 ought to be no discord in the home or in the church, 
 because we are called to be one body, and if I wound 
 a brother Christian I am blighting my own life; I am 
 spoiling the body which is one. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 To be a Christian a man must be born of the Spirit, 
 born into the family of God. The Lord Jesus is the 
 elder brother in this family, and we are all ordained 
 to be conformed to the image of the elder brother. 
 If you do not see the likeness to Christ in your 
 fellow-Christians the trouble may be in the dullness 
 of your eyes. You must get more of the Spirit of 
 God as a medium through which the Spirit may shine 
 upon the eyes of your understanding. 
 
 L. W. MUNHALL. 
 
 Some people will never know anything about Jesus 
 Christ except what they see in the lives of his dis- 
 ciples. We must remind people of Christ by living 
 the Christ-life ourselves. We must walk so close 
 behind Christ that people will not see us, but Christ. 
 
 J. M. Thoburn. 
 
 350 
 
DAY 
 
 m 
 
 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 
 —John X. 27. 
 
 True sheep know the voice of their shepherd. It 
 is a sick sheep that will follow a stranger. The 
 goats will follow anybody's voice, but Jesus is the 
 only one whom it is safe to follow in all things. If 
 you follow Abraham you are apt to get to lying; if 
 you follow Moses you are apt to lose your temper; 
 if you follow Elijah you'll get discouraged and sit 
 down under the juniper-tree; but follow Jesus Christ 
 and you will find that you are led in the path of 
 righteousness and peace. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 When Garibaldi was raising his army he said, " I 
 have no money, no food, no clothing, no stores, no 
 resources; let every man that is willing to suffer 
 poverty, shame, hunger, disease, and death, and who 
 loves Italy, follow me." It is the measure of our 
 suffering that will enable us to be like the Master. 
 It has been said that when he died he left his purse 
 to Judas, his clothes to the soldiers, his mother to 
 John, his pardon to the dying thief, and his peace to 
 his disciples. Some one has said, " I look for the 
 world and I find it in the church, and I look for the 
 church and I find it in the world." You may try all 
 you please for the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and 
 unless you are ^villing to present your bodies a living 
 sacrifice to God, you cannot be filled with the Spirit. 
 
 D. W. Whittle. 
 
 Hope is a heavenly bird of passage, with faith and 
 love as its wings. 
 
 L. W. MUNHALL. 
 
 351 
 
DAY 
 IV 
 
 Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready 
 to be revealed in the last time.— 1 Pet. i. 5. 
 
 A great many are afraid that they won't hold out. 
 It is a good thing to remember that we haven't got 
 to hold on to Christ; Christ holds on to us. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 Two little boys are walking along the road with 
 their father. One grasps hold of his father's fingers, 
 and finds that it is about all he can manage. The 
 other puts his hand right into his father's large, 
 strong hand, and the father holds it. Suddenly they 
 come to a ditch in the road. Both slip; the one who 
 is holding his father's hand loses his hold and goes 
 down; the other is held up firmly by the father's 
 strong grasp. You do the trusting and let God do 
 the keeping, and you will go safe through life and 
 enter into glory. H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 Christ in heaven is our hope in glory, and Christ 
 in the heart is our hope of glory. An anchor is 
 useless unless fastened at both ends, and Christ has 
 fastened one end in glory, while the Holy Ghost 
 comes down and fastens the other end of the anchor 
 in our hearts. In olden times the anchor used to be 
 brought in first and the ship came in afterward. So 
 Christ has gone in as the forerunner within the veil, 
 and we shall come in afterward. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 God may not give us an easy journey to the 
 Promised Land, but he will give us a safe one. 
 
 Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 352 
 
DAY 
 
 V 
 
 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not hav- 
 ing spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy 
 and without blemish.— Eph. v. 27. 
 
 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and 
 unblamable and unreprovable in his sight.— Col. i. 22. 
 
 Here are eight different terms to express the final 
 state of the church: *' glorious," "spotless," "with- 
 out wrinkle," "without any such thing," "holy," 
 "without blemish," "unblamable," "unreprovable;" 
 and Jude has one more adjective— "faultless." 
 Think of it. Even you are to be presented faultless 
 before the presence of his glory. The presence of 
 God's glory is so awful that when Daniel himself, 
 the well-nigh perfect man in Babylon, was confronted 
 with the vision of the glory, he says, " My comeliness 
 was turned into corruption, and there remained in 
 me no more strength." The very things that he had 
 prided himself upon,— his virtue, his morality, the 
 excellence of his character, and the blamelessness 
 of his life,— when the glory of the Son of God beat 
 upon him, lost their beauty, and his very comeliness 
 was turned into corruption. And the holy man of 
 God, John, who leaned on the breast of eTesus at 
 supper, tells us that when he beheld the vision of 
 the glory of the Lord he " fell at his feet as dead." 
 And yet— astounding fact!— you and I are to be 
 presented faultless before the presence of that same 
 glory. It will remove the last taint or scar of sin, 
 so that even God cannot find a remnant of sin, not 
 a trace of guilt, not even a scar left by the wounds 
 of sin on your soul, in your final, ultimate, glorious 
 perfection, 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 353 
 
DAY 
 
 VI 
 
 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
 thereof 'but canst not teil whence it coraeth, and whither it goeth: 
 30 is every one that is born of the Spirit.— John iii. 8. 
 
 In condescension to the infirmity of our nature, 
 God clothes his spiritual truth in material forms, 
 making the kingdom of nature, which is seen, illus- 
 trate for us the kingdom of Christ, which is not 
 seen. The greatest teacher of spiritual truth that 
 ever lived cast nearly all his instruction in the form 
 of parables. In like manner, when the Scriptures 
 would give us some insight into the character and 
 phases of the third person of the Trinity, they do it 
 by a series of emblems drawn from the natural world. 
 One emblem of the Spirit is that of fire, the illumi- 
 nating agency in the world, as the Spirit is the only 
 agency that can drive away the darkness of sin and 
 let in the sunlight of God. Another emblem of the 
 Spirit is water, the universal cleansing agent, as the 
 Spirit is the only power that can cleanse us from the 
 pollution of sin. Another emblem is oil, the old-time 
 medicine, as the Spirit is the only being in the uni- 
 verse to bind up the broken heart; also oil is the 
 consecrating element, and we cannot become kings 
 and priests unto God until we have the Holy Spirit. 
 But the m-ost remarkable emblem of the Holy Spirit 
 is the wind. There are three great points about the 
 Holy Spirit stated in this verse which our Lord ob- 
 truded upon the mind of Nicodemus. The wind and 
 the Spirit are both invisible to man, they are both 
 indispensable to him, and they are both independent 
 of him. 
 
 W. W. Moore. 
 
 354 
 
DAY 
 
 vn 
 
 Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.— 2 Cor. iii. 17. 
 
 Some people think that this means liberty for them 
 to do just about as they please. I never shall forget 
 how I was startled when a Christian once asked me, 
 " Do you always have a program made out for the 
 Holy Ghost in your church?" In most of our 
 churches everything is planned very exactly: a 
 voluntary here, a response here, a sermon here, and 
 so on— all fixed from beginning to end. It is the 
 lack of liberty that causes so much deadness in the 
 pulpit and deadness in the pew. Oh, for the liberty 
 of the Spirit! A. J. Gordon. 
 
 When a man tries to speak for Christ without the 
 help of the Spirit he will not have liberty; he is apt 
 to be fettered, like Lazarus when he came out of the 
 grave with a napkin bound over his mouth. If a 
 man neglects prayer and his Bible he is not going to 
 have liberty. I have seen ministers in the pulpit as 
 dry as Gideon's fleece. Sometimes it is the fault of 
 the minister and sometimes it is the fault of the 
 people. Do you suppose there would have been any- 
 body converted on the day of Pentecost if the one 
 hundred and twenty had been criticizing Peter? 
 Suppose James had said to John, " I do not think 
 Peter is preaching as well as usual. It is the most 
 influential congregation I have ever seen in Jerusa- 
 lem. There is half of the sanhedrim, and more than 
 forty of the leading rabbis, and half of the leading 
 Sadducees; and yet Peter is giving a very ordinary 
 sort of a talk." But Peter had not talked very long 
 before there came gales from heaven and swept over 
 that audience. Those one hundred and twenty were 
 holding Peter up in prayer. D. L. Moody. 
 
 355 
 
DAY 
 
 vm 
 
 Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there 
 am I in the midst of them.— Matt, xviii. 20. 
 
 If Christ had said, " Where five or six hundred are 
 gathered in my name, there am I in the midst," how 
 anxious we should have been to attend great meet- 
 ings, that we might get near the Lord ! But he says, 
 " Where two or three are gathered together." If he 
 had said, "Where bishops or popes or great men 
 are assembled, there will I be," we should travel the 
 world over to attend such assemblies. But we go to 
 the prayer-meeting, and we find only half a dozen, 
 and we think it is best to adjourn. We say, " There 
 will be no one there but that old lame brother, and 
 that blind sister, and that deaf one," and so we stay 
 away. When we believe what Christ has said we 
 will not open a prayer-meeting by asking him to 
 come and be in our midst, but we will come expect- 
 ing to find him, and will simply say, "Speak, Lord; 
 for thy servant heareth." H. L. Hastings. 
 
 Much of our strength in prayer and effort is ex- 
 hausted in striving to induce God to agree with us 
 and come to our assistance. Some one asked Abra- 
 ham Lincoln to appoint a day of fasting and prayer, 
 that God might be on their side. "Don't bother 
 about that," said the man of common sense. " God 
 is now on the right side; you simply get with him." 
 The only way to command God is to obey him, just 
 as the only way to command electricity and steam 
 is to obey the laws that govern them. 
 
 A. C. Dixon. 
 
 S56 
 
DAY 
 DC 
 
 Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and sup- 
 plication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto 
 God —Phil. iv. 6. 
 
 In prayer the most important thing is to catch the 
 ear of him to whom I speak* Do not offer one peti^ 
 tion until you are fully conscious of having secured 
 the attention of God. You need to have your heart 
 filled by the Spirit with the holy consciousness that 
 the everlasting, almighty God is indeed come very 
 near you. Andrew Murray. 
 
 It is not necessary to make long prayers, but it is 
 essential to be much alone with God, waiting on his 
 will, hearkening for his voice, lingering in the garden 
 of Scripture for the coming of the Lord God in the 
 dawn or cool of the day. No number of meetings, 
 no fellowship with Christian friends, no amount of 
 Christian activity, can compensate for the neglect 
 of the still hour. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 It is possible to recite even as sublime a prayer as 
 the Lord's Prayer, and do it with as little thought or 
 emotion or appreciation as though one were reeling 
 off prayers by the yard. To repeat the alphabet or 
 multiplication table is not more thoughtless than 
 many formal prayers that have become mere reci- 
 tations. Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 He that saveth his time from prayer shall lose it. 
 He that loseth his time for communion with God 
 shall find it in blessing. Robert P. Wilder. 
 
 God loves us too much to give us all we ask for. 
 We sometimes pray for razors, and then complain 
 and say that God doesn't answer prayer. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 357 
 
DAY 
 X 
 
 The Bible is not specially concerned with the 
 points wherein men differ. No; the Bible is busy 
 with a matter of life and death. Suppose that men 
 were drowning, and you were shouting directions by 
 which they should escape. You would call them to 
 seize the rope you threw them without stopping to 
 explain to them that a rope which holds the end of a 
 sail is called a sheet; you vv^ould tell them to swim 
 to the ship \vithout being particular to describe the 
 vessel as a hermaphrodite brig, though that might 
 be its technical name. So the Bible does not trifle 
 with us by a display of learning or by delays to ex- 
 plain every trivial thing. It sweeps right ahead in an 
 herculean effort to save life, and does not stop to 
 palter over the length of geologic days, or the omis- 
 sion of a name here and there in a genealogical 
 table. It tells no untruth, though on a multitude 
 of subjects it does not commit itself, but presses 
 straight on to pluck a brand from the burning. 
 
 Addison P. Foster. 
 
 What man made man may destroy; what God has 
 made God \v\\\ preserve. The grass of infidel oratory 
 withereth, the flower of Christian interpretation often 
 fadeth, but the Word of God shall stand forever. 
 
 R. S. MacArthur. 
 
 A foolish child can pull a flower in pieces, but it 
 takes a God to form and paint a flower. Until a man 
 can construct a book that equals the Bible he would 
 better let the Bible stand in its solitary grandeur and 
 power. David Gregg. 
 
 358 
 
DAY 
 XI 
 
 A Scotchwoman who received kind letters from 
 her son found bank-bills inside them, but, having 
 never seen such money, thought they were only 
 pretty pictures and put them aside. Many people 
 think the promises found in the Bible are very pretty 
 pictures, and perhaps some of you have put them 
 away in an old tea-pot. Is it not time to understand 
 that they are drafts on the bank of heaven that will 
 be honored night and day? God make us ashamed 
 that we have such a poverty-stricken spiritual life, 
 when all the resources of the Holy Ghost are ready 
 to supply our need. God does not want us to be 
 beggars, but sons. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 God never deals out to men just so much as they 
 need and no more. David said, " He maketh me to 
 lie down in green pastures." But it would not be 
 possible for him to lie down in a millionth part of 
 the pastures. "He leadeth me beside the still 
 waters." There were a hundred thousand water- 
 brooks, and he could only wait by one to refresh 
 himself. There are flowers in the woods where no 
 man can enjoy their beauty. We could get along 
 without beautiful birds and their warbling notes. 
 Ah! they are the overflow of the cup. God gives us 
 a great many blessings that we do not ask for. So 
 some people say that there is no need in praying be- 
 cause God gives us what we need without our asking. 
 Yes; but God lets us come to him and tell him our 
 wants, and he gives more than we name. Then let 
 us ask for what we need, and come back and thank 
 him for that and for the royal bounty. 
 
 Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 359 
 
DAY 
 
 xn 
 
 The most important of all things is the conception 
 which a man has of God. Given a man's idea of God, 
 and the degree of sincerity with which God is wor- 
 shiped, and there can be no difficulty in discovering 
 the moral quality of the worshiper. Find a man 
 whose idea of God is low, and you find a heathen. 
 Find a man whose conception of God is lofty, pure, 
 tender, loving, and you find a life ennobled and en- 
 riched with proportionate thought and charity. A 
 God infinite in power, and in wisdom, and in good- 
 ness, and in love, a God to whom sin is abominable, 
 such a God ought to produce a man of purity, of 
 dignity, of largeness of heart, and of nobleness of 
 character. David Gregg. 
 
 God is true and righteous and holy; he is perfect 
 in his equity and in his standards. Instead of turning 
 away from the judgment of God as a blemish on his 
 character, we ought to rejoice in it as another aspect 
 of his benevolence. We must have in God the bloom- 
 ing valley full of beautiful flowers and ^^^th the purl- 
 ing streams of grace, and also the dark, frowning 
 crags of divine judgment, the very intensity of 
 whose shadow implies an intensity of glory, for you 
 never can get shadow without light. Prostrate 
 yourself before an engine, and the very quahties 
 which make it a blessing make it an engine of de- 
 struction. God moves on a track of absolute and 
 perfect equity and holiness, and the same qualities 
 that insure that you would be borne forward into the 
 eternal ages if connected with God make it sure that 
 you would be ground to powder if you place yourself 
 before his wheels of judgment. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 360 
 
DAY 
 
 xm 
 
 There is a sevenfold seal of God upon the Bible, 
 which may be noticed in the following particulars: 
 1. Predictive prophecy, the seal of divine omnis- 
 cience; 2. History and biography, the seal of divine 
 providence; 3. Miracles, the seal of divine omnipo- 
 tence; 4. Morality, the seal of divine righteousness; 5. 
 Unity, the seal of divine omnipresence; 6. Accuracy, 
 the seal of divine truthfulness; 7. Practical power, 
 the seal of divine benevolence. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 It is not mere speculation of fancy to consider the 
 tabernacle and temple as typical. 
 
 First, they were typical of heaven, God's true 
 abiding-place, and, indeed, of the whole vast uni- 
 verse, which is a sjonmetrical temple perfect in 
 every part, and in which are continually being 
 sung praises to the almightiness, to the power, to 
 the wisdom, and to the love of God. 
 
 Then the temple stands as a type of the incarna- 
 tion of the Son of God and of the blessed Christ, the 
 true meeting-place between God and man. Hence 
 he could say, "Destroy this temple, and in three 
 days I will raise it up again." 
 
 Then we know, from the Epistles to the Corin- 
 thians, that the tabernacle and temple are types of 
 every Christian, for, " Know ye not that ye are the 
 temple of God?" David Baron. 
 
 If the early morning hours spent by Christians 
 over the newspaper were given to the Bible, keeping 
 the paper till later, what a change would be wrought 
 in the tone of our Christian life! 
 
 Robert E. Speer. 
 
 361 
 
DAY 
 XIV 
 
 The believer's union with Christ is represented in 
 the Scriptures in the form of similitudes because the 
 human mind thus understands it better. To give 
 the idea of security it is compared to the union of 
 the stones of a building with the foundation-stone. 
 But stones are inanimate, and to supply the idea 
 of vitality it is further compared to that of the vine 
 and its branches. But a plant has no consciousness 
 and power of motion, and therefore the union be- 
 tween Christ and the believer is compared to that 
 between the head and memibers of a body : Christ the 
 head, the seat of intelligence and feeling, the source 
 of vitality and volition, and all the members being 
 united to it by a common set of nerves, and by the 
 community of life and motion. But no affection is 
 suggested in that figure, so this union is further 
 compared to that between the husband and wife, 
 united by a legal tie, and both thus becoming one. 
 But between husband and wife there may be also a 
 lack of perfect harmony; and so Jesus compares the 
 union between himself and the believer to that be- 
 tween himself and the Father, the sweetest accord 
 of perfect harmony. And in the eighth chapter of 
 Romans Paul puts the capstone on this glorious struc- 
 ture when he pronounces the union between Christ 
 and the believer to be everlasting, challenging all the 
 sundering forces of the universe to separate us from 
 the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 
 All these ideas are gathered up and expressed at 
 once in a great general statement in Paul's first 
 letter to the Corinthians, when he says, " But he that 
 is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." This general 
 statement means that the believer is identical v/ith 
 Jesus in the Holy Spirit. W. W. Moore. 
 
 362 
 
DAY 
 XV 
 
 A church is not of much account where the min- 
 ister does all the preaching, and nearly all the pray- 
 ing, and all the visiting. D. L. MoODY. 
 
 A factory is sometimes linked by a belt to a power- 
 house. Christ is the center and source of all power 
 for his church. The. Holy Ghost is the belt to the 
 church, carrying up our needs and prayers, and 
 bringing down Christ's answers and fullness. As I 
 believe that wind-power is the best for sail-boats, and 
 steam-power is the best for engines, so I believe 
 that the Holy Ghost is the best power for churches. 
 For a church to bring in an opera-singer or amuse- 
 ments and secular appliances to make the church go 
 is as absurd as for an ocean steamer to uncouple its 
 shaft from the engine and couple it on to the donkey- 
 engine. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 " Unto every one that entereth the house of the 
 Lord, his daily portion." You have been looking 
 ahead and have been fretting because you know not 
 how the supply ^vill come, how you can ever go 
 through this or that trial or sacrifice. Beloved, 
 God never said look ahead, God said look up; God 
 never said look around, he only said look into the 
 holy of holies; God never said look down, he only 
 said look into the face of the living God; "Look 
 unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." 
 As we look beyond to-day and say, " How can I ex- 
 pect that in the w^ear and tear of daily life this holy 
 peace is to be sustained?" the answer is, "Unto 
 every one that entereth into the house of the Lord, 
 his daily portion.'' H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 363 
 
DAY 
 XVI 
 
 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 
 and the Word was God.— John i. 1. 
 
 A word is the manifestation of a thought. If I 
 wish to communicate a thought to you that thought 
 takes shape in words. You cannot see my thought, 
 but what is there comes through the channels of 
 speech, and so travels through your ear to your 
 mind, and becomes part of your thought. Now 
 Christ became the Word to take the thought out 
 of the mind and heart of God, and translate that 
 thought so that we could understand it, so that 
 what was before invisible and inaudible and beyond 
 the reach of our senses, comes into our minds and 
 hearts as something that was in God's mind and 
 heart, but now is in ours. Beautiful indeed is this 
 as an expression of what Christ is to us. You want 
 to know God; well then, study Christ, and you will 
 know all about him. " He that hath seen me hath 
 seen the Father," said Jesus. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 In the gospel story we find five great points of 
 special importance— the birth, the life on earth, the 
 death, the resurrection, and the ascension. An old 
 writer has called them " the process of Jesus Christ " 
 —the process by which he became our glorified King 
 and our life. In all this life-process we must be 
 made like unto him. In his birth he received his 
 life from God. In his life upon earth he lived in 
 dependence on God. In death he gave up his life to 
 God. In his resurrection he was raised up by God. 
 In his ascension he lives a life in glory with God. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 364 
 
DAY 
 
 xvn 
 
 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a 
 name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every 
 knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and 
 things under the earth.— Phil. ii. 9, 10. 
 
 The other names of Jesus express his relationships, 
 offices, and work, but this name is most potent and 
 precious. There is majesty in the name God; 
 there is independent being in the name Jehovah; 
 there is authority in the name Lord ; there is unction 
 in the name Christ; there is friendship in the name 
 Immanuel; there is help in the name Advocate; but 
 in the name Jesus alone is there salvation. 
 
 George C. Needham. 
 
 Between creation and the incarnation of Christ 
 there is one small but imiportant object, an altar of 
 sacrifice. Between the first coming and the second 
 coming is another small object, the table of the Lord. 
 The altar of sacrifice refers back to the creation and 
 fall of man, and forward to the incarnation and cross 
 of Christ. Every victim that bled upon the altar 
 reminded men of their sin, of Adam's fall, and of the 
 disaster that overtook the race, and pointed forward 
 to the Lamb of God that was to take away the sin 
 of the world. Likewise the table of the Lord has a 
 double reference— backward to the cross, forward 
 to the coming of the Lord; and every time we sit 
 down at the Lord's table the body and blood of our 
 Lord, as represented in the bread and the cup, point 
 back to his cross and forward to his second appear- 
 ing. " As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this 
 cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 365 
 
DAY 
 
 xvm 
 
 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me.— Ps. 1. 23. 
 
 Christ here teaches that the highest object of 
 money is not even to minister to the poor, but to 
 glorify God and express the gratitude of a loving 
 heart. Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 I am so impressed with the importance that God 
 attaches to sweet voluntariness that I am often 
 tempted to resolve never to beg a cent for God 
 again, but rather spend my energy in getting Chris- 
 tians spiritualized, assured that they will certainly 
 become liberalized. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 Gold has no value in heaven. They use it there 
 to pave the streets Vvith— better gold than we have 
 down here— transparent gold. God can make gold 
 as easily as he can make dirt; but he knows that 
 man has his heart set on it, and what he wants is 
 what your heart is set on. If you love him you will 
 give him everything. 
 
 God told the children of Israel that if they hadn't 
 », anything else they might even bring goats' hair and 
 ■^ it would be accepted. Thank God for the goats' 
 hairs! Lots of people haven't any gold or silver or 
 brass or fine linen, but they have a few goats' hairs. 
 God wants every one to do something, as much as 
 each one is able. D. L. Moody. 
 
 The church is weighed down to earth by bags of 
 gold, and cannot lift itself heavenward. You will 
 have to give an account of that which God has in- 
 trusted to you to be kept for himself and not for 
 yourself. David Baron. 
 
 366 
 
DAY 
 XIX 
 
 Be not wise in your own conceits.— Rom. xii. 16. 
 
 What God wants is men great enough to be small 
 enough to be used. H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves 
 one above the other, and that the taller we grew in 
 Christian character the easier we should reach them. 
 I find now that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath 
 the other, and that it is not a question of growing 
 taller, but of stooping lower, and that we have to go 
 down, always down, to get his best gifts. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 We have come so much to regard humility a car- 
 dinal virtue of Christianity that we may have forgot- 
 ten that the Christian should be ambitious. I think 
 he should be the most ambitious person on the earth. 
 To whom is the promise of eternal life spoken but 
 to those who, in patient endurance, in well-doing, 
 seek for glory, honor, and immortality, than which 
 there cannot be a much higher ambition ? Humility 
 is sometimes only pride turned wrong side out, just 
 as you turn a garment, and dye it, and refit it. A 
 person says, " If I can get into heaven at last I am 
 willing to occupy a back seat." But Scripture very 
 certainly indicates that you are to seek not only 
 barely to get into heaven, but you are to seek " an 
 abundant entrance " which " shall be given you into 
 the kingdom of God." The back seats are all spoken 
 for, and God wants us to get as near the throne as 
 possible. A. J. Gordon. 
 
 367 
 
DAY 
 XX 
 
 St. Paul says to the Philippians, "In everything 
 and in all things have I learned the secret [Have 
 you? What secret?] both to be filled and to be hun- 
 gry, both to abound and to be in want "—the secret 
 of perfect contentment. There sat the aged apostle, 
 bound by a chain to a brutal Roman soldier. Nero 
 might at any moment order his head to be cut off, 
 or that he be thrown into the Tiber, or given to the 
 lions. He has nothing but the comforts of a miser- 
 able Roman prisoner. He has not even a friend at 
 times, and yet, with the galling chain upon his wrist, 
 and facing a martyr's death, the man takes the pen 
 and writes, " In all things have I learned the secret 
 [blessed initiation into the mysteries of the kingdom!] 
 both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound 
 and to be in want." He drops a little thing, only 
 one, and gains more than all things; that is the se- 
 cret. H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 The peace of Christ is not something that he puts 
 into your heart, and that you must keep that it may 
 keep you. If the peace of God is to rule in my heart 
 it is because the God of peace himself is there. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 How little have we accepted and made use of the 
 legacy of peace and joy which Christ left to us! In- 
 stead of faces telling the world what a full salvation 
 we have, how often a long face has suggested that 
 men had better take their fill of happiness first be- 
 fore they leave it behind by becoming Christians! 
 May God give us so to live winning lives that others 
 will be allured to desire the same blessings we enjoy. 
 
 J. Hudson Taylor, 
 
DAY 
 XXI 
 
 "Woe to him that strive th with his Maker!" 
 Pharaoh did it, and was overthrown in the Red Sea; 
 Saul did it, and was deposed; Jehoiakim did it, and 
 he perished; Judas did it, and he hanged himself; the 
 Pharisees did it, and their city was destroyed ; Julian 
 the Apostate did it, and, falling back upon the field 
 of battle, said, "Thou hast conquered, Galilean!" 
 
 You can tell a man who has thwarted God if you 
 know much about him. Many old fossils give the 
 same experience twenty years after their conversion 
 that they gave the month after. In a prayer-meet- 
 ing many pray the same stereotyped prayer year 
 after year. Some ministers are just where they 
 were in their doctrine and the expression, and in 
 their very sermons, as when they commenced their 
 ministry— arrested, dwarfed. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 We must cooperate with God. If there is any sin 
 in my heart that I am not willing to give up, then I 
 need not pray. You may take a bottle, and cork it 
 up tight, and put it under Niagara, and there will 
 not a drop of that mighty volume of water get into 
 the bottle. If there is any sin in my heart that I am 
 not willing to give up I need not expect a blessing. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 These are the things that hinder a mighty work 
 of God in the individual man: present sin; uncon- 
 fessed and unrectified past sin; an unforgiving spirit; 
 fear of surrendering unreservedly to the will of God; 
 pride; unbelief. Which of them is the hindrance in 
 your case? Be in earnest; find out the hindrance, 
 and ask God to take it away. R. A. Torrey. 
 
DAY 
 
 xxn 
 
 Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his 
 arm.— Jer. xvii, 5. 
 
 Trust in yourself, and you are doomed to disap- 
 pointment; trust in your friends, and they will die 
 and leave you; trust in money, and you may have it 
 taken from you; trust in reputation, and some slan- 
 derous tongue may blast it; but trust in God, and 
 you are never to be confounded in time or eternity. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 The Scriptures not only tell us that the Christian 
 religion has come to inform us how we are to be 
 saved, but that our faith in Jesus Christ conditions 
 our salvation. It is not as it might have been— that 
 the salvation came, and that we can get the benefit 
 of it whether we know anything about it or not, 
 whether we have any creed or not, whether we re- 
 pudiate the whole thing or not, whether we believe 
 in it or not. It is not like the tide, that rises 
 whether you care about the moon's influence or not. 
 Our destiny is connected not simply with the fact 
 of Christ's atonement as recorded in the Bible, but 
 is conditioned on our acceptance of it. There is no 
 question of greater moment to you in your intellec- 
 tual life than this obligation to believe something 
 definite about Jesus Christ, as to what he was, what 
 he did, and how the doing of what he did stands re- 
 lated to the divine economy of men's salvation. 
 
 Francis L. Patton. 
 
 Unless our faith is manifested in righteousness, 
 we must beware lest we think it is genuine when it 
 is not; there must be in it the seed of all holy life. 
 
 Teunis S. Hamlin. 
 370 
 
DAY 
 
 xxm 
 
 The seed is the Word of God.— Luke viii. 11. 
 
 The seed is the perfect fruit of the flower, to which 
 all parts of the flower are subservient, and the flower 
 must die to develop the seed in its completeness. The 
 gospel of Christ is the seed to which everything in 
 God's Word is subject. Not till Calvary did we have 
 a complete gospel, which is therefore the final pro- 
 duct of God's thought; and Christ himself is the rose 
 of Sharon and the lily of the valley. It was necessary 
 that Christ should die that you and I might have 
 that seed which contains the very life of God. We 
 cannot find the product of God's thought in any 
 other character. Therefore, though we ought to 
 know the whole of the Word of God, we ought to 
 study it only in connection with this thought, that 
 we are somehow to be led to the clearer and fuller 
 understanding of the Word of God, which is the seed. 
 
 the seed is composed of two parts— the shell, or 
 outer part, without life, and the inner part contain- 
 ing life. The gospel of Christ consists of two parts. 
 There is the shell, the printed Bible; and there is 
 the inner part, which contains the life and the spirit. 
 What is the shell for ? So far as the seed is concerned, 
 for the protection of the life within and for the con- 
 veyance of that which makes the life within. If you 
 destroy the shell you destroy the life. The shell of 
 that seed which is the Word of God has been given us 
 for the protection of the life within and for its con- 
 veyance. 
 
 God intended the seed for dissemination. Is this 
 gospel to stay in your heart or town? No; wherever 
 there is a human heart there is where God expects 
 this seed to be planted. A. S. Gumbart. 
 
 371 
 
DAY 
 XXIV 
 
 God seeks to mold us by circumstances, and you 
 must believe that God has put you down just where 
 you are because your present position is the very 
 best place in the universe to make you what he 
 wants you to become. He could have made you a 
 king or a bishop, a millionaire or a statesman; but 
 he passed all these by and has put you just where 
 you are. You may be a stablem.an, a cook, or a 
 housemaid; but God had the whole universe to choose 
 from, and he wanted to do his best for you, and he 
 put your soul just where it is because he knew that 
 there you would be surrounded by the best condi- 
 tions to make you what he wanted you to become. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 Jesus Christ is a very, very peculiar Saviour to meet 
 the very, very peculiar need of very, very peculiar 
 sinners, in all our very, very peculiar circumstances, 
 and to bring victory to our very, very peculiar souls, 
 under all the very, very peculiar difficulties under 
 which we, in our very, very peculiar circumstances, 
 may be called to pass throughout our lives. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 When a young man is converted he is almost al- 
 ways inclined at first to say, " I know I could do far 
 more good if I was a preacher, so I'll leave my busi- 
 ness and become a preacher of the gospel." But 
 very often mistakes are made just in this way. God 
 may have given you some work to do for him in the 
 position in which he has placed you which no one 
 else could do if you were to leave it undone. We 
 should be very careful how we wish to change from 
 whatever position in life into which God has seen fit 
 to put us. Andrew A. Bonar. 
 
 372 
 
-^i 
 
 I wonder not that the scorning skeptic so often 
 mocks at Christians because he says that they cow- 
 ardly cringe at the foot of the cross, ready to take 
 God's gift like a sneak, but show nothing as a fruit 
 of that blessed gift. Remember that God demands, 
 and where God demands he enables, and where God 
 enables he expects us to fulfil. 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 When Leonard Woods, president of Bowdoin Col- 
 lege, was in France, he was invited to dine with the 
 king. He presented himself at the palace, and was 
 met by the king with his accustomed courtesy, who 
 said, " We did not know that we were to have the 
 pleasure of your company to-day. You did not 
 answer our invitation." Leonard Woods said, *'I 
 thought the invitation of a king was to be obeyed, 
 not answered." When the Spirit says " Come " it is 
 equal to a command, and we would better put off 
 all other engagements and come. No matter how 
 gently and winsomely the invitation comes, let us 
 never forget that there is a voice of royal, imperial, 
 imperious urgency and authority behind it. 
 
 John McNeill. 
 
 We must not only accept God's will as revealed 
 in his Word, but we must accept it in every provi- 
 dence. Whether it be a Judas that betrays or Pilate 
 in his indifference who gives you up to the enemy, 
 whatever trouble or temptation, vexation or worry 
 comes, see God in it, and accept it as his will. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 373 
 
DAY 
 XXVI 
 
 It is time that the church of God should awake 
 to her responsibility. We have been acting as 
 though we had an eternity in which to do the work, 
 and the people whom we seek to reach an eternity 
 on earth in which to be reached. 
 
 Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 Did you ever think, my brother, my sister, that if 
 it were not for missionary work you would be serv- 
 ing idols to-day? Suppose that Paul and those who 
 labored with him had been directed to go east in 
 place of west. How shocked you are when, in some 
 picture, you see a mother throwing her child into 
 the Ganges! It might have been you, my sister. 
 Have you no pity for the fellow-beings that are dy- 
 ing at the rate of one hundred thousand a day? 
 
 W. E. Blackstone. 
 
 In China are tens of thousands of villages with 
 small trace of Bible influence, but hardly a hamlet 
 where the opium pipe does not reign. It does more 
 harm in a week than all our missionaries are doing 
 good in a year; it is the sum of villainies. It de- 
 bauches more families than drink and it makes more 
 slaves than the slave-trade. 
 
 J. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 The world is open to Christian woman as it never 
 has been before. She must wTite; for a literature 
 must be created for the women of the East. She 
 must teach; for the convert must be trained and the 
 heathen won. She must evangelize; for her feet 
 alone can carry the good tidings of peace to her 
 sisters in their seclusion. J. M. Thoburn. 
 
 374 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvn 
 
 The more your religion costs you, the richer re- 
 turns it will bring you. 
 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 Men talk much of giving their spirits to God; they 
 talk somewhat of giving their souls; and they think 
 that they can satisfy God and man by saying that 
 they present their spirits, which no man can lay 
 hold of, and their souls, which are only observable 
 in their outward acts; but they refuse to give their 
 bodies, for the most part, because this would cost 
 them something palpable; this would involve what 
 even men call ** self-sacrifice." 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 Christ is our life. The air is our life, and is every- 
 where. Is the air nearer to us than Christ? Verily, 
 no! Christ is around us on every side. Nothing in 
 heaven or earth or hell can keep the light of Christ 
 from shining into the heart that is empty and open. 
 Then take him in his blessed meekness and gentle- 
 ness. When he has taken possession of you there 
 will be blessed fellowship with him day by day. 
 
 Andrew Murray. 
 
 Hercules could not kill the monster against which 
 he contended until he lifted him from earth, his 
 mother. We are engaged in a violent struggle with 
 evils that are of the earth, earthy, and w^e shall 
 never kill those things within us and of us till we 
 lift them away from that in which they were born 
 and cleanse them in the atmosphere of spiritual 
 union with Christ. W. W. Moore. 
 
 875 
 
DAY 
 
 xxvm 
 
 Before any work for God there always comes the 
 vision of God. To behold him, to be lifted up above 
 our troubled hearts, above our worries and discords, 
 and to be absolutely sure that we have spoken with 
 God and he has spoken with us, this is the indis- 
 pensable preliminary of doing anything whatsoever 
 in God's service. If a servant of God is uncertain 
 of his Master he will be uncertain of everything 
 that follows in his service. If you and I have no 
 doubt about having seen God, then our divine service 
 will grow sweeter and clearer and easier every year 
 we live. I have had men say to me, " Didn't Paul's 
 Christian life begin with the question, * What wilt 
 thou have me to do?'" No, it did not; no life be- 
 gins with that question. It began with the question, 
 "Who art thou. Lord?" When Paul had settled 
 that it was the risen Christ who appeared to him, 
 then came the much easier question, "What wilt 
 thou have me to do?" We cannot feed the multi- 
 tude out of an empty basket; we cannot present the 
 Lord until we have seen the Lord. 
 
 W. H. P. Faunce. 
 
 When God beckons you forward he is always re- 
 sponsible for the transport. F. B. Meyer. 
 
 When God almighty linked himself with Moses' 
 rod it was worth more than all the armies in the 
 world. If God can use an old, dried-up, withered 
 rod he can use you and me. It was not Moses nor 
 Moses' rod that brought the plagues on the Egyp- 
 tians, but it was the God behind the rod. 
 
 D. L. Moody. 
 
 Point to without trying to prop up the cross. 
 Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
 376 
 
DAY 
 XXIX 
 
 Remember there are few, if any, cases where in 
 judgment much is made of sins committed; for they 
 are purged away by the blood of Christ. Men are 
 judged because of what they have not done, more 
 than because of what they have done. As a Christian 
 said on his death-bed, when asked by a friend who 
 saw him weeping if he was afraid to die, "Oh no; I 
 am not afraid, but I am so ashamed to die, for I have 
 done so little for my Lord." What have you done 
 for him in return for what he has done for you? 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 Napoleon sought to rule men; Washington aimed 
 to serve them. You see the results of the two sys- 
 tems in what is left of them. At Waterloo to-day 
 you find a great waste desert, in the center of which 
 is simply a mound to commemorate a great battle. 
 But around the field of Bunker Hill sprang up the 
 great city of colleges and schools, and those influ- 
 ences that went out through all the world; that is 
 the result of the service which Washington rendered 
 in contrast to the domination of Napoleon. You 
 find at Mount Vernon a very plain structure for the 
 tomb of Washington, scarcely to be noticed, except 
 one goes out of his way to see it. Napoleon's tomb 
 is in the heart of Paris, and a marble casket holds 
 his remains. Washington's remains are as broad 
 as the continent. That is the result of service as 
 opposed to self-seeking. 
 
 Alexander McKenzie. 
 
 A man who would have God's guidance must be 
 willing to make spiritual things his main business. 
 
 H. C. Mabie. 
 
 377 
 
DAY 
 XXX 
 
 To every truly established Christian there ought 
 to be a fixed standard of faith and duty, a great 
 revelation from God of his privilege and obligation 
 in every respect from the beginning to the end of 
 eternity. We must put God to the front, and then 
 remember that the standard of holiness which we 
 are to attain must never be lowered to meet the 
 necessity of man's circumstances, but must remain 
 the same, the absolutely true and perfect standard 
 of God himself. If God were ever to lower his 
 standard to meet my requirements there could never 
 be satisfaction through eternity for us creatures, 
 because we hope to rise higher and higher, to be 
 nearer and nearer to God. If I found that God had 
 lowered his standard of holiness to meet my ideas 
 down here in my imperfection, how could I reverence 
 him as the absolute and all-perfect one? 
 
 H. W. Webb-Peploe. 
 
 The conscience sustains to the mil of God some 
 such relation as the eye sustains to any work that 
 we have to do. Your eye may be very accurate, 
 but who would trust you to build a wall if you have 
 no dependence but your eye? You must drop the 
 plumb-line alongside and lay the level upon your 
 work, and then the united action of eye, plumb-line, 
 and level helps you to make a perfectly upright wall. 
 In the matter of truth and duty your eye is the 
 fallible conscience, the plumb-line and level the 
 revealed ^vill of God, and the action of the two to- 
 gether enable you to build a character and to do 
 works that are according to the will of God. Christ 
 had to come as the prophet to supply us with the 
 plumb-line and level. Arthur T. Pierson. 
 
 378 
 
DAY 
 XXXI 
 
 That is to be the common, every-day experience 
 of the believer, not his life only at set times. Did 
 ever a father or mother think, " To-day I want my 
 child to love me "? No; they expect the love every 
 day. So God wants his child every moment to have 
 a heart filled with love by the Spirit. In the eyes 
 of God it is most unnatural to expect a man to love 
 as he should if he is not filled with the Spirit. 
 
 Andrew. Murray. 
 
 It is only when we begin to love other people, and 
 become rooted and grounded in love to them, that 
 we learn to know what Christ's love is to us. You 
 must love a woman that you may understand what 
 •Christ feels for his church ; you miust love a child to 
 know how God feels to his children; you must love 
 a friend to know how Christ feels to his friend. 
 Every time you do an unselfish, gentle, tender thing 
 it is another window into the love of God. You 
 must go lengths to understand the length of his 
 love, which is everlasting; you must go depths to 
 the infamy and degradation of such as you would 
 help if you would understand the depth of the love 
 of Christ; you must go breadths outside the narrow 
 limits of your charity to understand his broad ex- 
 panse of love ; and you must climb to heights, bear- 
 ing up some languid, fainting soul, if you will under- 
 stand something of the upspringing of Christ's love 
 that bears us in his ascension climb. Love men if 
 you want to know the love of Christ. 
 
 F. B. Meyer. 
 
 The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by 
 the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 
 
 Rom. v. 5. 
 
 379 
 
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