U N I VLR5 ITY Of ILLINOIS PRESENTED BY Newton M. Harris 1941 I 9 IN HIS STEPS For Those Beginning the Christian Life BY J. R. MILLER, D.D. Author of “Week-Day Religion,”“Home-Making,” “Silent Times,” Etc. “Wherever I have seen the print of His shoe in the earth there have I coveted to set my foot too.’’— Mr. Standfast. PHILADELPHIA THE WESTMINSTER PRESS 1917 Copyright, 1885, 1897, by The Trustees of The Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath- School Work Published Sept., 1885 Re-issued Oct., 1897 Fifty-First Thousand ZZZ M 1.15 1 /f/7 PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. , object of this little book is to help 1 those who are beginning the Christian life. It contains merely a few suggestions and counsels by an older brother who has gone a little farther on the way, who has experienced some of the difficulties and dangers and learned a little of the help Christ is ready to give to those who will accept it. This book has been prepared specially to meet the desire of pastors and sessions who wish to give to those whom they receive into the Church a suitable manual of instruction and help. Thousands of copies of the former edition have been given in this way. The book may be found suitable also for teachers to put into the hands of young people in their classes who wish to begin the Christian life. This new edition contains much new matter, and the whole book has been care¬ fully revised. J. R. M. Philadelphia. 3 CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I.—Uniting with the Church . . 7 II. —Beginning Well. 14 III. —The Christian Life: The Ideal 20 IV. —Living for God : Consecration 27 V. —Meeting Temptation: Conflict 36 VI. —Working for Christ : Service . 44 VII. —Helps: Personal Prayer ... 53 VIII. —Helps: The Bible. 64 IX. —Helps : The Church and its Ser¬ vices . 75 X. —Some of the Duties. 90 XI. —Growing in One’s Place : Provi¬ dence . 97 XII.— Preparation for Trial .... 104 5 IN HIS STEPS. CHAPTER I. Uniting with the Church. r pO unite with the church is to take one’s place among the followers of the Master. It is a public act. It is a confession of Christ before men. It is not a profession of superior saintliness ; on the other hand, it is a distinct avowal of personal sinfulness and unworthi¬ ness. Those who seek admission into the church come as sinners, needing and accept¬ ing the mercy of God and depending upon the atonement of Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. They come confessing Christ. They have heard his call, “ Follow me,” and have re¬ sponded. Uniting with the church is taking a place among the friends of Christ; it is coming out from the world to be on Christ’s side. There are but two parties among men. “He that is not with me is against me,” said Jesus. The church consists of those who 7 In His Steps. are with Christ. This suggests one of the reasons why those who love Christ should take their place in the church. By so doing they declare to all the world where they stand and cast all the influence of their life and example on Christ’s side. Secret discipleship fails at this point. However much we may love Christ, how¬ ever intimate our fellowship with him may be, however sincere our friendship for him, he misses in us the outspoken loyalty of a true confession which proclaims his name in its every breath. Secret discipleship hides its light and fails to honor Christ before men. Uniting with the church is a declaration that one has joined the company of Christ’s disciples. Disciples are learners. Young Christians have entered the school of Christ —have only entered it. They do not profess to have attained perfection; they profess only to have begun the Christian life. Jesus took his first disciples into his school and for three years taught and trained them. He made known to them the great truths of Christianity which he had come to reveal— truths about God, about his kingdom on the earth, about duty. Then he taught them how to live. In like manner the disciples of Christ who enter his church now become his scholars. They may be very ignorant, but this is no 8 . Uniting with the Church. reason why they should not be admitted to the school of the great Teacher. They should not wait to increase their knowledge before they become his disciples. The very purpose of a school is to take those who are ignorant and teach them. But one condition of admittance as a scholar is, a desire to learn and a readiness to be taught. Of the first Christians, after the day of Pentecost, it is given as one of the marks of new life in them, that they con¬ tinued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching. They were eager to learn all they could hear about Jesus, and therefore they lost no oppor¬ tunity of listening to the teaching of the apostles, who had been with Jesus for three years. Young Christians should always be eager to learn. This is one of the objects of church membership. In different ways is this instruction given. A Christian home should be a school of Christ. The Christian mother is Christ’s first apostle to her children who should learn from her lips the great lessons of life. Home teachings come first when the mind is open and the heart is tender and sensitive to impressions. The Sabbath-school is designed to do an important work in teaching the young the truths of Christianity. The pastor is a teacher. He has been trained to be an instructor of others in knowledge of God 9 In His Steps. and in the way of life. He expounds the vital truths of the Scriptures and also inter¬ prets them for daily life. The private read¬ ing of the Bible is another way of learning the things we need to know to make us wise unto salvation. But knowledge is not all. Even Bible knowledge is not all, does not alone make one a good Christian. One might know all the great facts and doctrines of the word of God, might be a profound Bible scholar and a wise theologian, and yet not be an advanced or even a growing Christian. We are to learn to live Christ as well as to know the truths about Christ. Jesus in his teachings makes a great deal of obedience. We are his friends if we do whatsoever he commands us. We are to learn to be patient, meek, gentle, long-suffering, compassionate. We are to learn to be humble, kindly-affectioned, unselfish, truthful, sincere. Young Christians enter Christ’s school to be trained in all the qualities which make up the true Christian life. Jesus is not only the teacher,—his life is the text-book which we are to study. Part of his mission to this world was to show us in himself what a true and complete human life is. He was sinless, and he realized the full beauty of obedience to the divine will. We are to look to his life to learn just how to live, the kind of charac- io Uniting with the Church. ter we are to seek to have, the meaning of the lessons which his words set for us. We are in the school of Christ to be trained in all Christian life and duty. The lessons the Bible sets for us we are to learn to live out in common life. Every word of Christ sets a copy for us, as it were, and we are to learn to write it in fair and beautiful lines. For example, it is not enough to learn from the Beatitudes that certain qualities are praised by the great Teacher; we are to get the Beatitudes into our own life as quickly and as perfectly as we can. So of all the teachings of Christ— they are not for knowing merely, as one learns the fine sayings of favorite literary writers; they are for living. They are to become lamps to our feet and lights to our path, and they are to be wrought into the web of our character. The object of the church in this training of disciples is well expressed in the words of St. Paul,—“ for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” This thought of the church as the school of Christ and of young Christians as enter- ii In His Steps. ing the school, is very suggestive. We are not to expect perfection, but we have a right to expect an increasing knowledge of spiritual things and also spiritual growth in all the qualities which belong to Christian character. We should become more patient, more lov¬ ing, more unselfish, more helpful, more faith¬ ful in all duty, more like Christ. Uniting with the church brings its duties. It allies us with Christ and makes us co¬ workers with him. We are not to think merely of what the church may do for us, but also of what we may do for the church. Church loyalty is a mark of true and whole¬ some Christian life. One need not be a narrow sectarian to be a good church mem¬ ber ; but one will always be the better Chris¬ tian for being entirely devoted to his own church and enthusiastic in all its life and work. Anything that weakens a man’s loyalty to his own particular church hurts his spiritual life and lessens his usefulness as a Christian. In many ways church members may serve their church. They should be interested in all its work of saving souls and promoting the cause of Christ. They should regularly attend its services. They should contribute for its support. They should study its inter¬ ests and seek in every way to extend its in¬ fluence. They should keep the church in Uniting with the Church. their prayers, daily making supplication for it. They should bring to it always the best they have to bring, not of gifts and service only, but also of love and personal help¬ fulness. It is a high privilege to be a church mem¬ ber, and one who has such honor should seek to be worthy of it, as the church is the body of Christ in this world. *3 CHAPTER II. Beginning Well. ^ GOOD beginning is half. Many people spend the latter part of their years in cor¬ recting the errors of the earlier part, and by the time they are ready to live the end has come. A good beginning at once turns all the energies into the right channels. No golden years need then be wasted in unlearn¬ ing false lessons, in revising unwise or im¬ practicable plans or in retracing one’s steps. Many a career of brilliant possibilities is marred by a wrong beginning. There are mistakes of early life which men never get over. A bad foundation has caused the wreck of many a noble building. Inade¬ quate preparation for a business or a calling leads, at the best, to impaired success, and most frequently results, in the end, in utter failure. These principles apply in Christian life. It is of the utmost importance that we start well. Many Christians walk in doubt and shadow all their days, never entering into rich joy and peace, because at the beginning Beginning Well. they failed to realize the blessedness of the privileges to which, as children of God, they are entitled. Many others never attain any¬ thing noble and beautiful in Christian life and character because at the beginning they did not wholly disentangle themselves from their old life and fully consecrate themselves to Christ. A good beginning, therefore, involves two things—clearness and definiteness of aim, with intelligent views of the nature and meaning of the Christian life; and com¬ pleteness of consecration. Many men fail in life because they have no settled purpose, no well-defined plan. They have no goal set before them which with all their energies they strive to reach. There is in their mind no clear and distinct idea toward which they struggle. They merely drift on the current, and are borne by it whithersoever it flows. They are not masters in life, but poor slaves. They con¬ quer nothing, but are the mere creatures of circumstance. Such lives, however, are unworthy of intelligent beings endowed with immortal powers, and they never reach any high degree of nobleness or success. No sculptor touches the marble until he has in his mind a definite conception of his work as it will appear when it has been finished. He sees a vision before him of a 15 In His Steps. very lovely form, and then sets to work to fashion the vision in the stone. No builder begins to erect a house until a complete plan embracing every detail has been adopted. Before he strikes a stroke he knows precisely what the finished structure will be. No one would cut into a web of rich and costly cloth until he had before him the pattern of the garment he would make. In all work on material things men have definite aims before they begin their work, and know precisely what they intend to produce. But in life itself and in living, in charac¬ ter-building, in destiny-shaping, many fail to exercise such wisdom. Multitudes never give one earnest thought to such questions as these: “What is my life? For what pur¬ pose is it intrusted to me ? What ought I to do with it ? What should be the great aim of my existence ? What should I strive to be and to do?” Thousands live aimlessly, having no true sense of the responsibility of living, never forming an earnest, resolute purpose to rise to any noble height or to achieve any worthy thing. An immortal life should have its aim ever shining before it bright and clear as a star in the heavens. To grow up as a plant—without thought or purpose—is well enough for a plant, and God clothes it and shapes it into marvelous beauty; but men with undying souls and measureless 16 Beginning Well. possibilities should have a purpose worthy of their immortality, and should strive with heroic energy to attain it. In entering the Christian life there should be a clear aim. We should know definitely what this new life is which we have now to live. With but vague ideas of the meaning of a Christian life—its ideal, its requirements, its privileges, the duties which belong to it— no one can begin well. All is vague and misty, and while it is so we cannot put any purpose or energy into our life. We need to understand the new relations into which we come as children of God, in order that we may realize the privileges of our position. We need to have a clear conception of the final aim of all Christian attainment and aspiration, in order that we may strive toward it. We need to know what is re¬ quired of a Christian toward his God and toward his fellow men, in order that we may faithfully and intelligently perform all our duties. We need to know the conditions of Christian life—its needs, its dangers—in order that we may avail ourselves of the necessary helps provided for us. Thus a clear and intelligent aim is essential in be¬ ginning well as a Christian. The other essential thing in beginning well is the devotion and consecration of ourselves to the new life we have chosen. A good 17 2 In His Steps. ideal is not enough. One may aim an arrow with perfect accuracy, but the bow must also be drawn and the cord let fly if the arrow is to reach the mark. A vision in the brain is not enough for the sculptor : he must hew and chisel the marble into the form of his vision. The architect’s plan is only a pic¬ ture, and there must be toil and cost until the building stands complete in its noble beauty. A good aim is not all of a Christian life. It is nothing more than an empty dream unless it be wrought out in Godlike character and Christlike ministry. Every earnest Chris¬ tian looks much at the glorious Master, and, as he looks, visions of wondrous beauty fill his soul—glimpses of the loveliness of Christ; and he must then seek with patient yet in¬ tense purpose to reproduce these heavenly visions in his own life. Many people have sublimest aspirations and wishes—and even form their aspirations and wishes into intentions and resolves—who yet never take a step toward realizing them. Mere knowing what it is to be a Christian makes no one a Christian ; many perish with the glorious ideal shining full and clear before their eyes. Merely seeing the beauty of Christ, as it is held before us for our copy¬ ing, will never fashion us into that beauty. Our knowledge must be wrought into life. 18 Beginning Well. The image our souls see must be fashioned into character. Our good intentions must take form in daily deeds. Knowing God’s will, we must do it with willing heart and diligent hand. “ Make my mortal dreams come true With the work I fain would do; Clothe with life the weak intent: Let me be the thing I meant; Let me find in thy employ Peace that dearer is than joy ; Out of self to love be led, And to heaven acclimated, Until all things sweet and good Seem my natural habitude.” 19 CHAPTER III. The Christian Life: The Ideal. ^HAT is it to be a Christian? What is that change which, wrought in a natural man, makes him a Christian man ? What are a Christian’s new relations to God and to his fellow men ? What is Christian char¬ acter ? How should a Christian live ? What is the pattern on which his life should be fashioned ? If we would make our Christian life what it ought to be, we must find plain, dear answers to these questions. A Christian is one who believes on Christ. He has intrusted his whole life, with its sin, its guilt, its ruin, its need its security for eternity, its redemption, cleansing and trans¬ formation, to the hands of the mighty Saviour, the strong Son of God. A Christian is there¬ fore a saved one, a redeemed one—saved, redeemed, by Christ. He is no longer guilty and condemned: he is acquitted, justified, restored to such relations before God that he is as if he had never sinned, so fully are his sins put away. He is God’s lost and wander- The Christian Life : The Ideal. ing child brought home, received, reconciled, restored to all a child’s privileges. But this is not all; it is not merely a change of relations. Those who believe on Christ are born again, the Scriptures say—born from above, born of God; that is, there is a new, a divine, life in the regenerated soul. Christ speaks of it as a well of water in the believer springing up into everlasting life. The result is shown in new affections, new desires, new hopes, new aims. Forgiveness of sins is not enough. A man’s lies and dishonesties may be forgiven; but, if that is all, he is still a liar and dishonest. God’s forgiveness re¬ generates. A Christian life is the setting up of the kingdom of God in a human heart. A child was troubled at the thought that heaven was so far away, and was perplexed to know how he could ever get up to that bright home. His mother explained to him that heaven must first come down to him— must first enter his heart. A Christian is one into whose heart the spirit of heaven has entered. The new life is like that they live in heaven. We are taught to pray, “ Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” The one place in all the earth in which it most concerns each Christian to see that God’s will is done as it is in heaven is in his own individual heart. If we are truly born again, the life of 21 In His Steps. heaven has really begun within us. It may be very feeble in its beginning, like one little seed only, planted in a garden; but the one seed is from heaven, and the new life in us has truly begun. “ That which is born of the Spirit,” said the Master, “is spirit.” It is the life of the Spirit in a human soul. Paul put this truth in a very striking way when he said, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Our Lord said a Christian is “a branch ” of the true Vine. This suggests what Christian life and character should be before the world. Every true Christian is a new incarnation. Christ showed the world in his own person the life of the invisible God. No human eye ever saw God in his glory ; no one could ever have seen him had not Christ come down and in a plain, simple, and real, human life which men could see and understand, lived out the divine life which in its glory men could neither see nor under¬ stand. He interpreted the invisible things of God in act and phrase which the common people could read. He said, when he was asked about God, “ Look at me and see God. I and my Father are one. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” In like manner, in his own small measure, every one truly a Christian is an incarnation of God, and should be able in humility to say, “ Look at me, and you will see a dim 22 The Christian Life: The Ideal. but faithful representation of God.” This puts a very solemn responsibility on every Christian. He represents God in this world, and is to live in such a way that from his life men shall learn the truth about God. If Christ lives in us, men must see Christ in our faces and hear him in our words and learn of him in our acts. The ideal of Christian life is therefore the likeness of Christ. That is the pattern shown in the mount after which we are to strive to fashion our life. As we study Christ in the Gospels there rises up before us the vision of his matchless beauty. We go over the chapters, and we find one fragment of his loveliness here and another there; and as we read the story through to the end beauty after beauty ap¬ pears, until at length we see a full vision of the Christ which, though imperfect by reason of the imperfectness of our nature, yet truly represents to us the image of our blessed Re¬ deemer. This is the pattern we are to follow in fashioning our lives. This is the vision we are to seek to carve into reality in our own character. All our acts we are to bring to the example of Christ, testing each one by that infallible standard. The Gospels should be studied by the young Christian as a builder studies the architect’s drawings, that every minutest detail may be 23 In His Steps. exactly reproduced so far as in a faulty and sinful human life the character and conduct of the faultless and sinless Jesus can be re j produced. The perfect pattern is ever to be held before us for imitation, and as we look at it glowing in all its marvelous beauty, yet far above us and beyond our present reach, we are to comfort ourselves and stir our hearts to the noblest efforts and highest at¬ tainments by the thought, “ That is what some time I am going to be.” However slow may be our progress toward that perfect ideal; however sore the struggles with weak¬ ness and sin ; however often we fail,—we are never to lose sight of the distant goal nor cease to strive and press toward the mark. Some day, if we are faithful to the end and faint not, we shall emerge out of all failure and struggle, and, seeing Jesus as he is, shall be fully transformed into his blessed image. Such is the aim of the Christian life. “ We shall be like him”—that is the final destiny of every redeemed life. This should be in¬ spiration enough to arouse in the dullest soul every sluggish hope and every slumbering energy, and to impel to the highest effort and the most heroic struggle. This assurance should perpetually shine like a bright star beyond the fields of toil and battle, forbid¬ ding discouragement in any temporary fail¬ ure or defeat and cheering all faintness and 24 The Christian Life: The Ideal. weariness into buoyant strength and enthu¬ siasm. This goal of blessedness is not to be reached at one bound: it is the work of long and painful years, and the progress is slow and the transformation gradual and almost im¬ perceptible. “ Heaven is not gained by a single bound, But we build the ladder by which we rise From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, And we mount to its summit round by round.” It will help us, in striving after the per¬ fected beauty, to remember that we can best attain it by carving each moment’s line with care. God gives us life by days and hours, not by months and years. The way to have his purpose for us fulfilled in us is to fill each minute with simple faithfulness. Doing God’s will for one moment not only lights the path for the next, but prepares us for its responsi¬ bility. Charles Kingsley said, “ Do to-day’s duty, fight to-day’s temptation, and do not weaken or distract yourself by looking for¬ ward to things which you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them.” Character is a mosaic in which each day has its little stone to set; we need but to look well to the days as they come, and to print on each its record of beauty, and the whole will be beautiful in the end. This living sim- -5 In His Steps. ply by the day is one of the royal secrets of a beautiful life which every young Christian should learn. A life thus lived, each day made beautiful with the beauty of holiness and of useful¬ ness, will in the end give a record of duty well done, of work completed, of blessings left behind at each step, and a character transfigured by the indwelling divine Spirit and the outworking of love until it shines in the full likeness of Christ himself. -s6 CHAPTER IV. Living for God : Consecration. JT is not enough to cut loose from the old life: the young Christian must enter the new life. Leaving the service of one master, he must enlist in that of another. Withdraw¬ ing his heart’s affections from one class of objects, he must fix them upon another class. Ceasing to do evil, he must also learn to do well. No longer a servant of sin, he must become a servant of righteousness. Mere repentance is not enough; giving up one’s wicked ways is but half of conversion : there must also be a devotement of the life to Christ. The heart cannot be left empty. “ When St. Boniface had hewn down the sacred oak worshiped by the savages in the tangled forests of Germany, he did not stop with destroying it, but when it was felled built out of its fallen and splintered frag¬ ments the chapel of St. Peter, and in the room of the worship of Thor the Thunderer left the worship of Christ the crucified. ‘ To replace is to conquer ;’ and the theology of 27 In His Steps. the forests fled back abashed before the the¬ ology of the cross.” When we break with the world, we must straightway bow before Christ; indeed, we can be freed from the dominion of the old master only by the coming into our hearts of the new. The only way we can turn from sin is by turning to Christ. He then be' comes, first, Deliverer and Saviour; after¬ wards, King and Lord. As such he must be accepted, and the whole allegiance of the life should instantly be transferred to him. This is conversion ; it is going over to Christ fully, wholly, freely and for ever. It is not merely attaching ourselves to the church: it• is attaching ourselves to Christ. It is not merely entering upon a good moral life—pure, honest, clean; not merely en¬ gaging in active Christian work : it is the acceptance of Christ, first as a personal Sa¬ viour, then as a personal Lord. It is coming to Christ himself, believing on him, following him, loving him, obeying him. It is important that the young Christian shall understand this, and that his devotion to his Lord shall be real and complete. No man can serve two masters. It will not do to try a divided allegiance. True consecration carries all over to Christ. For one thing, this means holiness: “Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a 28 Living for God : Consecration. price: therefore glorify God.” Holiness means separation for God. The life which belongs to Christ must be kept from sin. The hands which are held up in prayer and that take the sacramental emblems must not touch any unclean thing. The lips which speak to God, sing his praise and pronounce his name must not be stained by any sin¬ ful or bitter words. The heart which is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit must not open to any thought or affection that would defile God’s temple. The feet which Christ’s pierced hands have washed must not walk in any of sin’s unhallowed paths. A con¬ secrated life must be holy. Unholiness is very subtle. It creeps in when we are not aware. It begins in the heart. At first it is but a thought, a moment’s imagination, a passing emotion, or a desire. Hence the heart should be kept with unre¬ mitting diligence. Only pure and good thoughts should be entertained. It is in the thoughts that all life begins. All acts are thoughts first. Our thoughts build up our character as the coral insects build up the great reefs. As a man thinketh in his heart so is he. If we are to keep ourselves un¬ spotted from the world as we pass through its foul streets, we must see to it that no unholy thing is for a moment tolerated in our heart. A crime stains one’s name before 29 In His Steps. the world; a sinful thought or wish stains the soul in God’s sight and grieves the di¬ vine Spirit within us. But the keeping of the life unspotted is not the whole of living for God: there must be service also. When young Christians are received into the church they profess to dedi¬ cate themselves and all they have—time, talents, money, every power of body, soul, and spirit—to the service of Christ for ever. This means that they will no longer claim mastership over themselves ; that henceforth they are Christ’s servants; that they will live for Christ only all the days; that they will listen at each step for his command and promptly obey it; that they will devote all their possessions to him, using them for him and at his bidding; and that they will em¬ ploy their talents and influence to advance his kingdom. Daily duty in the common relations of life is as much part of a true consecration as are praying, reading the Bible, and attending church services. If the heart be given to Christ, the whole life is holy. We do not live two lives—one religious and one secular— after we become Christians. We are always to do God’s will, and it is as much his will that we should be diligent in business as that we should be fervent in spirit. 30 Living for God : Consecration. “ The trivial round, the common task, Would furnish all we ought to ask— Room to deny ourselves, a road To bring us daily nearer God.” When young persons yet in school become Christians, they are not to drop their secular studies and read the Bible all the time: they are to go on with their lessons—only with new motives, for Christ now—faithfully using every moment, diligently striving to get the greatest possible benefit and improvement from their education to fit them for the life and work before them. When religion makes a pupil less diligent, less studious, less earn¬ est, there is something wrong. When a young man in a trade or business gives him¬ self to Christ, unless his occupation is sinful he is ordinarily called to continue in it, car¬ rying his Christian principles into it and do¬ ing business now for Christ. Secular work is not unholy. All duty is sacred in God’s sight. The hands of Jesus swung the ax and pushed the plane, and he pleased the Father just as well then as when he was praying and reading the Scriptures. Paul’s hand sewed upon tents, and he was just as near to God when thus at work as when he was preaching in the synagogue. Of course the motive of life is changed when we truly belong to Christ. Self comes down from the throne and we do everything 3i In His Steps. for the Master: “ Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” We train our powers to greater effi¬ ciency that we may be more useful in Christ’s work. We live carefully that in the smallest things we may honor him. We seek in¬ creased influence that we may do more to bless the world and advance the glory of Christ’s name. The world is reading our lives, and it reads no other Bible ; we must make sure, therefore, that our daily actions spell out a true gospel, so that no one who sees us may ever get from us a wrong thought of Christ or a wrong sense of his religion. We do not understand one half the bless¬ ing to others and the influence for religion there is in simply being good. We struggle to be active and to do many things. We run everywhere to work for Christ. We think that unless we are always doing some¬ thing, or talking to somebody, or holding a meeting somewhere, or visiting the poor or the sick, we are not useful. We make a mis¬ take. There is no other such power for real usefulness and helpfulness, no other such glorifying of God, as in simple goodness. Holy life itself is highest service. Hence there should be in every young Christian the most conscientious watchfulness over the early growths of spirituality in his own heart. These growths are tender and 32 Living for God: Consecration. easily destroyed, like the young plants which the gardener keeps in his conservatory through the winter and cool spring days. The whole matter of heart-culture requires the utmost diligence. All life, business and social as well as religious, must be made to contribute to it. We should form our friend¬ ships and choose our amusements with refer¬ ence to their effect on our heart-life. Some one has given this true test, whose applica¬ tion should be wide as life itself: “ Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your view of God or takes off the relish of spiritual things —in short, whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind—that is sin to you , however innocent it may be in itself.” A life so regulated, so watched, so ruled by conscience and by the word and Spirit of God, will grow into a living power of real holiness the value of whose ministry will be incalculable in its silent pervasive influence. “ Birds, by being glad, their Maker bless ; By simply shining, sun and star ; And we, whose law is love, serve less By what we do than what we are.” There is still another part of all true con¬ secration : besides living a pure and good life, and besides doing all our daily work for Christ, we should also embrace every oppor- 33 3 In His Steps. tunity of doing good to others in Christ’s name and for his sake. There are needy and suffering ones all about us, and we are to do Christ’s errands to these, performing for them the ministries of kindness and mercy which he would render if he were here in person. There are weak and fainting ones about us who find life hard and who need sympathy and help. To all these we have errands of love; we should share their burdens and put strong, sustaining arms about them in their weakness. A life for Christ must always be a life of love, of usefulness and of helpfulness. No true Christian lives for himself. We have our model in him who came “ not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” We need not wait for great opportunities—these come but rarely; the common days are full of opportunities for little kindnesses, thoughtful¬ nesses, and unselfishnesses, and in order to write bright records for ourselves we have only to seize these and stretch out our hands to render the ministries to which God thus invites and calls us. Doing the thing that Christ himself would do if he were precisely in our place—that is the rule for Christian living. Thus consecration becomes very real. It is living for God, day by day, hour by hour. It is nothing strained or unnatural; 34 Living for God: Consecration. it does not wrench us out of our place nor disturb our relationships unless they are sin¬ ful ; it is the simple living out in true devo¬ tion to Christ, in unquestioning obedience and in quiet faithfulness, the life he gives, in whatever sphere our lot may be cast. 35 CHAPTER V. Meeting Temptation : Conflict. JHE experience of temptation is universal. Every life must grow up amid unfriend¬ ly and opposing influences—some of them subtle and insidious, like miasma in the air; some of them fierce and wild, like the blast of storm or the rush of battle. Much is said in sermons about the solemn nature of death; yet really it is not half so perilous a thing to die as it is to live. No child of God was ever lost, or even harmed, in the experi¬ ence of dying. " The grave itself is but a covered bridge Leading from light to light through a brief dark¬ ness.” But life is full of peril. To live truly we must battle day by day. Satan is no medi¬ aeval myth, but an actual foe, powerful, cunning, treacherous, terrible. Danger lurks in every shadow. The question in life is not how to escape temptation, but how to pass through it so as Meeting Temptation : Conflict. not to be harmed by it. Christ’s way of helping us is not by keeping us out of the conflicts. This would leave us forever weak, untried, undisciplined. The price of spiritual attainment and culture is struggle. Jesus himself was made perfect through suffering. All the best things in life—the only things worth obtaining—lie beyond fields of battle, and we can get them only by overcoming. It would be no kindness to us were God to withdraw us into some sheltered spot when¬ ever there is danger, or if he were to fight our battles for us, thus freeing us from all necessity to struggle. “ He who hath never a conflict hath never a victor’s palm, And only the toilers know the sweetness of rest and calm.” We must meet temptation, and we must fight. Not to fight is to lose all. Nor is there really any need for yielding. The weakest child may move unharmed through the sorest strifes. It is possible to meet the strongest temptations and not be hurt by them. It has been done. Men have met the fiercest enemies, the most unrelenting oppositions, passing through the hottest flames, and have come out, like the Hebrew children from the king’s furnace, without even the smell of fire on their garments. 37 In His Steps. Whatever may be said of the weakness of human nature unhelped and unsustained, there still is no need for any trembling soul to faint or to fail in the strife. There is a divine Helper who himself went into the thickest of the struggle and passed through it unharmed. He was “ in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin ”— that is, he met all life victoriously; and because he was thus victorious he is able, not only to understand human struggles and to sympathize with every one who is tempted, but also to give “ grace to help in time of need.” We have the assurance that the faith¬ ful God will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able ; but will with the temptation make the way of escape, that we may be able to endure it. There is, therefore, a way of so living in this world as not to suffer harm in even the fiercest temptations—to pass through them and not be touched by them. There is even a way of so meeting temptations as to get benefit and blessing from them. An apostle said, “ Count it all joy when ye fall into mani¬ fold temptations; knowing that the proof of your faith worketh patience;” ‘‘Blessed is the man that endureth temptation : for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to them that love him.” 38 Meeting Temptation : Conflict. Rightly meeting and victoriously resisting puts new fiber into the soul. The Indians say that when a warrior kills a foe the spirit of the vanquished enemy enters the victor’s heart and adds to his own strength. This is true in spiritual warfare. We grow stronger through our struggles and victories. Each lust conquered, each evil subdued, adds to the strength of our soul. The question, then, is how to meet tempta¬ tion so as to overcome it, and thus win the blessing there is in it. We must remember, first of all, that we are not able in ourselves successfully to fight our battles. If we think we are, and go forth in our own name and strength, we shall fail. Life is too large, and its struggles and conflicts are too sore, for the strongest human power unaided. We must settle it once for all that we can conquer only in the name and by the help of the strong Son of God. We may come off the field more than conquerors, but only through him that loved us. We can pass safely through all the fierce dangers of this world and be kept unspotted amid its sin and foulness, but only if we have with us him who is able to guard us from stumbling and set us before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding joy. Self-confidence in temptation is fatal folly. Then we must be sure that the temptation 39 In His Steps. we are meeting really lies in the path of our duty—that God calls us to meet it. Some temptations must be overcome by avoidance, by not meeting them. We pray each morn¬ ing, “Lead us not into temptation;’’ we must, then, be sure that we are following our Father’s leading when we enter any way of temptation. Only when the temptation comes in the path over which the divine Guide takes us, have we the assurance of protection in it. Lord Macaulay tells us that at the siege of Naumur, while the conflict was raging, William, prince of Orange, who was giving his orders under a shower of bullets, saw with surprise and anger among his staff officers Michael Godfrey, the deputy governor of the Bank of England. He had come to the king’s headquarters on business, and was curious to see real war. “Mr. Godfrey,” said King William, “you ought not to run these hazards. You are not a soldier; you can be of no use to us here.” “ Sir,” answered Godfrey, “ I run no more risk than Your Majesty.” “Not so,” said William. “I am where it is my duty to be, and I may without pre¬ sumption commit my life to God’s keeping; but you—” Before the sentence was finished a cannon¬ ball laid Godfrey dead at the king’s feet. The king’s words were true, and the truth 40 Meeting Temptation : Conflict. is just as applicable to temptations and spirit¬ ual dangers as to the perils of war. When duty calls us into any place, we are safe: God will protect us ; but otherwise we venture without any promise of shelter. We must face danger only when God and duty unmis¬ takably lead. Then, when we find ourselves in the pres¬ ence of temptation, we must not forget that we have something to do ourselves in getting the victory. Men and devils may tempt us, but men and devils cannot force us to yield. We are sovereigns in our choices while the right and the wrong stand before us. Other wills than ours may seek to influence us— may plead, entreat, persuade—but they can¬ not compel. We cannot avoid being tempted, but we ought to avoid yielding to temptation. Luther used to say, “We cannot keep the birds from flying round our heads, but we can prevent them building their nests in our hair.” We cannot keep temptations away from our ears nor prevent them whispering their seductive words close by us, but we can hinder them making their nests in our hearts. We are not to be passive in this matter. We must not expect God to fasten the door and hold his hand upon the lock. The shut¬ ting and opening of the door is our part of the responsibility. Even God himself will 4 1 In His Steps. never come into our heart unless we volun¬ tarily open it to him. Christ stands without and knocks, waiting with all his wealth of love and all his power to bless until we bid him welcome. We with our frail weakness can keep even Omnipotence outside. So, as divine grace cannot enter to do us good un¬ less we open, neither can satanic evil enter to work ruin in our souls without our consent. We are doorkeeper of our own heart. Thus the final responsibility is with ourselves. Hence our duty in temptation is unwavering resist¬ ance—an unreversible “No ! ” to every solici¬ tation to sin. If we settle this point, we have learned one of the greatest lessons in spiritual warfare—“having done all, to stand.” Besides this, nothing more is needed but faith and prayer. When the temptation comes in the path of duty, and when we re¬ sist it with unflinching determination, we may with simple confidence commit the keeping of our life to God. No evil can ever harm us if we cleave unfalteringly to Christ: “ He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” Still better: “The Lord is thy keeper.” There come times in every life when all we can do is to shut our eyes and let God lead us. Indeed, in all hours of darkness and danger, this is our privilege and our duty; and if we thus commit our way to God, he 42 Meeting Temptation: Conflict. will bring us safely through the last peril and the last struggle into the light and joy of victory on the heavenly plains. Then it will be seen that it has been no misfortune that we have had to fight sore battles on the earth. Old war-veterans are not ashamed of their scars—they are marks of honor; they tell of wounds received in battling for their country. In heaven the sol¬ dier of Christ will not be ashamed of the scars he has gotten in his warfare for his Lord on the earth ; his crown will be all the brighter for them. They will shine as the King’s medals, decorations of honor—“the marks of the Lord Jesus.” When an army marches home from a victorious field, it is not the bright, clean, un¬ torn flag that is most wildly cheered, but the flag that is pierced, riddled and torn by the shot and shell of many a battle. So in the home-coming in glory it will not be the man who bears fewest marks of suffering and struggle and fewest scars of wounds re¬ ceived in Christ’s service who will be wel¬ comed with the greatest joy, but the man who bears the marks of the sorest conflicts and the greatest sufferings for the honor of his Lord and for his kingdom. 43 CHAPTER VI. Working for Christ : Service. J^VERY truly consecrated life has been made over to Christ with all its powers. Faith implies full surrender: “Ye are not your own ; ’’ “Ye are Christ’s.” Christ owns us first by right of creation, then by right of purchase; and we acknowledge his owner¬ ship and all that it includes when we accept him as our Saviour and Lord. The first question, therefore, of the new-believing heart is, “What shall I do, Lord?” We want to begin to work for our new Master. “ Be thy best thoughts to work divine addressed; Do something—do it soon—with all thy might; An angel’s wings would droop if long at rest, And God himself, inactive, were no longer blest.” We belong to Christ; we are his slaves—that is the word St. Paul used so much, and with such a thrill of joy as he thought of the honor it denoted. He was Christ’s slave. “Whose I am, and whom I serve,” was his working creed. “Thy will, not mine,” is henceforth 44 Working for Christ: Service. the only true law of life for us. We are to wait at each step for Christ’s bidding. Our very thoughts must be brought into captivity to him. This ownership covers and embraces all life. A heart of love for Christ makes the sweeping of a room, the ploughing of a field, the sawing of a board, the making of a gar¬ ment, the selling of a piece of goods, the minding of a baby, all actions as fine as the ministry of angels. One way of working for Christ, therefore, is to be diligent in the doing of life’s common daily tasks. The true giving of ourselves to God exalts all of life into divine honor and sacredness. Nothing is trivial or indifferent which it is our duty to do. We are never to neglect any work, however secular it may seem, in order to do something else which appears to be more religious. There are some people who would be better Chris¬ tians if they paid more heed to their own daily business, attended fewer meetings and did less religious gossiping. Ruskin says, “ Neither days nor lives can be made holy by doing nothing in them. The best prayer at the beginning of a day is that we may not lose its moments ; and the best grace before meat, the consciousness that we have justly earned our dinner.” We need a religion which puts itself into 45 In His Steps. everything we do. The old shoemaker was right when he said that when he stands before the great white throne God will ask, “What kind of shoes did you make down on the earth ? ” We must do all our work for the judgement day, our common everyday tasks as well as our religious duties. The carpenter must get his religion into the houses he builds, the plumber into his plumb¬ ing, the tailor into his seams, the merchant into his sales. All our work we must do for God’s eye. But, besides this living of the whole life for Christ, there is specific work for him in which every Christian has a part to perform. Every one who is saved should do something toward saving others. The first thought of a truly saved person is of some friend or friends who are still in peril; and the first impulse of a renewed heart is to try to bring these lost ones to the Saviour. The cause of Christ in this world needs assistance in many ways, and it is the will of the Master that this cause should be advanced, not by the ministry of angels, not by Christ himself immediately and directly, but by his people—those whom he has redeemed and saved. The story of salvation must be told by lips that have first uttered the cry for mercy. The lost must be won by the love of hearts that have first been broken in penitence. The divine blessing of 46 Working for Christ: Service. salvation must be carried in earthen vessels to the perishing. Every Christian has something to do for Christ in this world. The fullest hands must make room for some little part of the Mas¬ ter’s work. Even the child that loves Christ may at least carry a cup of the water of life to some thirsty soul. Every Christian should be deeply imbued with the missionary spirit. A portion of the responsibility for carrying the news of salva¬ tion to every creature rests on each follower of Christ. In these days of missionary activity there is no one who cannot do some¬ thing to help send the gospel to heathen lands. Every young Christian should con¬ sider himself, from the moment of his con¬ secration to Christ, a debtor to all men, near and far, who are not yet saved, and in prayer and work and gift he should seek to pay that debt to the last atom of his ability. In nearly every church there are mis¬ sionary organizations for the cultivation of the missionary spirit, the diffusing of infor¬ mation and the gathering of money for the work of missions. Every young Christian should be identified with one of these organi¬ zations, thus imbibing the missionary spirit and preparing for active interest and service in the cause. There is also very much sorrow and suffer- 47 In His Steps. ing in this world, and every Christian should do all in his power to comfort the sorrow and alleviate the suffering. Here, as in all things, Jesus himself is our example and his life is our pattern. We represent him in this world. He has gone away to heaven, but he has left his people here to carry on his work. Here is a wide field for Christlike and most helpful ministry. What we need for it is a spirit of sympathy and kindness that shall never fail. We may not be able to do much to relieve those who are troubled: we certainly cannot work miracles as Christ did ; but we may have a heart of love which shall manifest itself toward every one in a spirit of patient gentleness and kindly thoughtful¬ ness. Sincere sympathy is oftentimes better than money. People in distress generally need a friend more than they need gift or miracle. God sends to earth no angels whose ministry leaves more benedictions of joy, of help, of inspiration, of uplifting, of restoring, than are left by the ministry of the angel of true human sympathy. For this service we need only to have in us the true spirit of Christ, a spirit of unself¬ ish love, and then blessing will flow from our life even without effort or purpose, unconsciously, as fragrance pours from a flower, as light streams from a lamp. 48 Working for Christ: Service. '* As some rare perfume in a vase of clay Pervades it with a fragrance not its own, So, when Thou dwellest in a mortal soul, All heaven’s own sweetness seems around it thrown.” Christ did other kinds of work, but it was the same spirit that wrought in all his min¬ istry. He taught the people; he scattered the words of truth; he lifted up his voice against wrong and sin; he sought the lost and led them back to the Father; he went to the cross in the room of sinners. In all forms of personal ministry we are to strive to follow in his steps. The golden seeds of heavenly truth which his lips dropped we are to seek to scatter everywhere in life’s desert- fields. The very best thing we can do for people in this world of sin and sorrow is to get the words of Christ into their hearts. It is like scattering flower seeds on the black lava beds about the fiery mountain’s base—in the crev¬ ices the seeds will root and grow, and sweet flowers will bloom by and by. Christ’s words are living seeds from which spring up heavenly plants to beautify and bless bleak and dreary lives over which sin’s fires have rolled. The tiniest hand and the weakest can scatter these seeds in some bare spot where they will grow. It is the little things that all of us can do 4 49 In His Steps. in Christ’s name which in the end leave the largest aggregate of blessing in the world. We need not wait to do great and conspic¬ uous things. One Amazon is enough for a continent, but there is room for a million little rivulets and purling brooks. A life that every day gives its blessing to another and adds to the happiness of some fellow being by only a word of kindness, a thoughtful act, a cheering look, or a hearty hand-grasp, does more for the world than he who but once in a lifetime does some great thing which fills a land with his praise. Nothing that is done for Christ is lost. The smallest acts, the quietest words, the gentlest inspirations that touch human souls, leave their impress for eternity. Then, while we are giving out blessings to help and to enrich other lives, we are receiv¬ ing also into our own heart. The words of the Master are literally true: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” He did not say it is more pleasant, more agreeable, but more blessed. The song we sing to cheer a weary spirit echoes back new cheer into our own soul. The sacrifice we make to help one in distress leaves us not poorer, but richer. Love’s stores are not wasted by giv¬ ing—the more we give, the more we have. The way to grow rich in the treasures of kindness and affection is to show kindness 50 Working for Christ: Service. and affection to all who need. If we find our spiritual life languishing, its resources growing less, the true way to refresh it is not by closer economy in giving out to others, but by greater generosity. “ For the heart grows rich in giving: All its wealth is living grain ; Seeds which mildew in the garner, Scattered, fill with gold the plain. “ Is the heart a living power? Self-entwined, its strength sinks low, It can only live in loving ; And by serving love will grow.” In every living church there are various organized forms of Christian activity; in some one or more of these every member should be engaged. Let the young Christian at once choose the particular class of work in which he decides that it is best for him to engage, and promptly identify himself with the organization, society or band which has in view the special work he has selected. There should not be one idle Christian in any church. One of the most withering curses uttered in the Scriptures is against uselessness —against those who come not up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Thus Christian work is not only a duty, but a means of grace. It is not the rest of inaction to which Christ calls us, but the rest In His Steps. of loving service. Every power of our being we should give to him to be used. Every gift we possess should be employed in doing good. That day is a lost day in which we do nothing to bless some other life in the name of Christ. “ Work for some good, be it ever so slowly ; Cherish some flower, be it ever so lowly : Labor ! all labor is noble and holy; Let thy good deeds be a prayer to thy God.” CHAPTER VII. Helps: Personal Prayer. W E all need helps in our Christian life. Of course, all the help we require we can find in God. His is the almighty arm on which we should ever lean in our weak¬ ness ; his is the infinite life from whose full¬ ness we should ever draw for the refilling of our own exhausted life-pitchers ; his is the light that should ever shine upon our dark¬ ness for cheer, for comfort, for guidance, for joy. God is all we need. But we cannot see God with these mortal eyes; we cannot feel his bosom when we need to lean upon it; we cannot hear his voice when we listen for the word he may have to speak ; we cannot carry our empty pitchers up to heaven, where God dwells, to have them refilled. We are like vines torn off the trellis and trailing on the ground amid the dust and the weeds, and we cannot lift ourselves up to twine about the unseen supports which God’s grace provides. We need something to help our dull senses— 53 In His Steps. something we can see or hear or touch; something to interpret to our souls and bring near to them the spiritual things of divine love; something to which the tendrils of our life can cling, and which will lift them up and fasten them on the invisible realities of the spiritual world. And in loving mercy, in condescension to our weakness and spirit¬ ual dullness, God has provided for us such helps as we need. He brings us his bless¬ ings in ways that are adapted to our earthly state and capacity. He puts the rich sup¬ plies of his heavenly grace in cups from which we can drink, and sets them low down where we can reach them. One of the helps which God has provided is prayer. Without prayer no Christian life can exist. There are other spiritual helps from the want of which we may suffer, but without which we may still live near to God ; but to give up prayer is to die. Why should we pray ? Because God is our Father and we are his children. It would be a most undutiful, unfilial, ungrateful child who should live in a good and beautiful home, enjoying its comforts, blessed by its love, and who should never have anything to say to the father whose heart and hand make the home, and who provides its comforts and pleasures. We should pray, also, because we need 54 Helps: Personal Prayer. things which we can get only by prayer. Some things we can pick up with our hands in this good world of our Father’s, or buy with our money, or receive through our friends ; but there are things which we can get only directly from God himself, and only bv asking him for them. He alone can for- give our sins; and unless we are forgiven, life is not worth living. He alone can give us a new heart; and unless we have a new heart, we can never enter heaven. He alone Can give us grace to live a good and holy life and keep us from sinking back into sin. He alone can help us to fight life’s battles and come out victorious at the end. He alone can lead us through death’s valley to glory. Indeed, we can do nothing without God. The leaf quivering on the bough is not more dependent upon the tree for its greenness and life than are we dependent upon God for our very existence and for all blessings. We must pray or perish. But may we pray ? We look up, and we see no face in the heavens, no eye gazing down—nothing but sky and clouds or stars. We speak and then listen, but no answer comes to us: all is silence about us. Is there really any one to hear ? Or if there is, will he hear ? There are millions of people on the earth, and there are millions of other worlds besides 55 In His Steps. this. Astronomers tell us that our globe, if it were suddenly destroyed, would not be more missed in God’s vast universe than one leaf which you might pluck off a wayside bush would be missed from all the leaves on all the trees and forests of the earth. It may be that, like our planet, these other countless worlds have their millions of inhabitants. Will God hear the cry of one person among so many ? Does he take notice of indi¬ viduals ? Does he have particular thought and care for each one ? The Bible plainly answers these questions. It tells us that God is our Father ; that he loves us, not merely as a race, but as indi¬ viduals—loves us each one with a peculiar personal affection, as a human father loves each one of his children though he have many ; that he thinks of us, giving to the smallest, humblest of us particular thought and care, watching over us, listening for our cry, ready always at any moment to give the help we need and seek. A little child fancied that when she began to pray, God asked all the angels to stop singing and playing on their harps while he listened to her prayer until she said “Amen ! ” She was not far wrong in her fancy. God does not need to hush the angels’ songs to hear a child’s prayer; but he hears it, never¬ theless, amid all the noises of this great 56 Helps: Personal Prayer. universe, just as truly and clearly as if every other voice were hushed. One of the psalms represents God as in¬ clining his ear to the suppliant on the earth to hear his cry, as a man bends down so as to bring his ear close to one who speaks, that he may catch every word. In another psalm are these remarkable words: “ He hath, looked down from the height of his sanc¬ tuary ; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth ; to hear the groaning of the prisoner." The Bible is full of just such human repre¬ sentations of God’s interest in his children on the earth, and of his loving attention when they cry to him. We may pray, therefore: there is One to hear us. How shall we pray so as to be heard and to receive help? For one thing, there must be real desire in our hearts. Forms of words do not make prayer: we must want something, and must realize our dependence upon God for it. Then we must come to him as his children. It was Christ himself who taught us to pray to “ Our Father which art in heaven.” If we have the true child-spirit which the using of this invocation implies, we shall make our requests with confidence, believing that our Father loves us and will deny us nothing that is for our good. Of course, we must remember that God knows better than we do what is best for us, 57 In His Steps. and we must be willing, even when our desires are strongest and most impetuous, to say, “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” We must let our Father decide whether the thing we ask is the thing we need. The thing we want might be poison to our life; if so, God will not give it to us, but, instead, will give us grace to do without Jt, which is an answer to our desire, and a far better answer than the thing we sought. Prayer should also be earnest. Two of our Lord’s parables were spoken to impress this duty. If an unjust judge could be so moved by importunity, how much more will the loving heart of the heavenly Father yield to repeated supplication ! The man at whose door the friend knocked at midnight gave the loaves, not because it was his friend who asked them, but because the friend would not go away without them. God is not moved by such low motives, but the parable is meant to show the power of persevering importunity in prayer. God wants to see his children in earnest; he loves to hear from suppliants the burning words which tell of intense desire. One fervent, impassioned “ I will not let thee go, except thou bless me” has more power with God than whole years of cold, heartless, formal prayer. Of course, importunity must not become rebelliousness: in the greatest intensity of 58 Helps: Personal Prayer. our praying we must ever be ready to acquiesce in God’s will. Importunity has its limits. It may at length become evident that God does not want to give us what we desire; then we should cease to plead, with submissive faith accepting our Father’s re¬ fusal. Thus our Lord himself in the garden was importunate, but from first to last he deferred all to his Father’s will; and after having prayed three times he ceased to plead, taking the cup held out to him. Paul was importunate in pleading for the removal of the thorn which so troubled him, but, like his Master, he also was acquiescent; and after pleading three times he too ceased to urge his plea. There is little danger that we ever too earnestly or importunately press our desires for spiritual good, either for ourselves or for others. We know it is always God’s will to give us more grace, to make us holier and purer, to bring out in us more clearly the features of the divine image, to give us more of his Holy Spirit: these are always bless¬ ings ; but in prayer for temporal things it is safer and wiser to ask humbly and with diffi¬ dence, laying our desires at God’s feet, with¬ out anxious pressure, without too much urgency, trustfully submitting all to his un¬ erring wisdom. The true aim in living is not to grow rich, 59 In His Steps. to be clothed in earthly honor, to have mere worldly happiness and freedom from suffer¬ ing and loss, but rather to grow rich in spiritual graces, to be made more and more like Christ and to live out God’s purpose and plan for our life. By far the noblest thing for us always is God’s will. That means perfect beauty and perfect good. Anything else is marring and blemish. When shall we pray ? When the spirit of prayer is in the heart, there is little need to say just how or when prayer should be offered. Still, there must be habits. Merely to trust to the feeling or desire, and to have no fixed time for devotion, praying only when the heart prompts, is not safe. The end would be a prayerless life. The lamps in the temple burned continually, but they were trimmed and refilled every day. The flame of devotion in a Christian heart should never go out, but this lamp too must be re¬ plenished continually. Certainly, there should be a season of secret prayer at the opening, and again at the close, of every day. “ In the morning it seems a hem and border to each day’s life, and in the evening it brings down the dew on the spirit, to wash off the stain and dust, and to feed and refresh.” In the morning the day lies before us with its unforeseen and untried experiences. It may bring painful 6