Class Book Copyright If. COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. Every Day BOOKS BY DR. WORK THE ART OF SAILING ON Will make faint hearts grow stouter. i2mo. Cloth net $1.00 EVERY DAY The very best in lucid thought and adaptation of the Scriptures to the practical requirements of those who make daily use of the Word. i2mo. Cloth net $1.25 OBSCURE PEOPLE Five Bible characters heretofore unknown here revealed and endowed with personality and strength. i2mo. Stiff boards " net 50 cents THE HOUSE OF CHIMHAM It makes the birth of Christ very realistic. i2mo. Cloth net 50 cents STUDY TO BE QUIET It points the way to a quiet, unprejudiced out- look on a troublous time. i2mo. Cloth net 50 cents THEKLA A bit of early Christian legend beautifully told. i2mo. Stiff boards net 25 cents Every Day By EDGAR WHITAKER WORK Author of "Obscure People," "Study to be Quiet," "The Art of Sailing On," etc. lEtirrB Hag mill I btesa It}** Psalm lh5:2 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY Park Avenue and 40th Street New York BV4S3sL Copyright, 1915, by AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY i'r DEC 2 1915 ©CI.A414863 To My Dear Friends Mr. and Mrs. Frank H. Greene in Memory of Happy Adirondack Days JANUARY ONE 1 OBtierp Dap "Every day will I bless thee." Psalms 145:2. EVERY day is God's gift. "Day unto day uttereth speech." They all tell of the good- ness of God. The years also are " the years of the right hand of the Most High." One day at a time God bestowed the past year upon us. One day at a time he will lead us forth into the coming year. Therefore — " every day will I bless thee." Every day God's mercies come to us. His bless- ings are daily blessings. They never fail, they are not intermittent. Every day the rising sun brings the return of divine grace, and every day the setting sun witnesses his abiding mercy. Has it not been so in all the past year? Have we lacked our daily bread? Have we suffered any lapse of God's love? Who can doubt that it will be so in all the coming year. Therefore — " every day will I bless thee." Every day brings some unique mercy from God. His mercies are new and fresh every day. God pre- pares a gift for every day, so that every day wears its own crown. The days are not the same — they are not alike. Every day is original, bearing God's image and superscription. Every day has its message and its invitation. Every day has its op- portunity too and its open pathway leading to God and eternity. Therefore — " every day will I bless thee." 2 JANUARY TWO a personal praget "Lord, teach us to pray." Luke 11:1. Teach me, O God, the ancient truth of the divine goodness, the wondrous joys of repent- ance, the rich rewards of obedience, the deep satisfactions of the companionship of Jesus, and all the marvelous inspirations of thy glo- rious Word! Teach me the courage of unrequited toil, the nobility of speech and the splendor of silence, the gladness of a humble task done in love, and all the masterful uplift of that fine music of the heart that sings amidst the dust of things! Teach me " the patience of unanswered prayer' 3 the plentiful strength of discipline, the sacred stillness of life's problems, the soft- ened meanings of life's shadows, and all the high reach of life's far-flaming hopes! Teach me the value of love and the warm joys of a dedicated hearthstone, the revelation of life in the heart of a child, the message of truth in the heart of a friend, and all the end- less inspiration to service in the heart of the world! Amen. JANUARY THREE 3 Cfte Cftttll of Kecotoerg " My steps had well nigh slipped/* Psalms 73:2. BUT not altogether, for " Thou hast holden my right hand." " I have made the Lord God my refuge." " And my feet have not slipped." How the heart thrills with the j oy of recovery ! It is God that hath helped me. Was it a long sickness, when strength departed from me, and the tapers of mortal hope burned low? I can feel the thrill of his touch upon me as he came and drew me back to life again. " I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord." Or was it a great temptation, when the net of sin was spread for my steps, and I was almost gone in the way of those that despise his law? How marvel- ously he came to my rescue, and brought me up out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and es- tablished my goings. A new song came to my lips then, the song of recovery, " even praise unto our God." Or was it some overwhelming sorrow, when the soul seemed to lose its anchorage and go drift- ing out into the sea of doubt and despair? Then I heard my Lord saying unto me, " Come unto me, and I will give you rest," and I hied me to his loving arms. Oh, the joy of the heart when the soul turns again home from doubt and despair! 4 JANUARY FOUR Cfte Importance of jQames " Salute the friends by name." HI John 14. WE are all envious of those who have the gift of remembering names. It is truly a fine accomplishment, and besides, it is a means of doing good to one's fellowmen. Who is there that does not like to have his name spoken clearly and correctly? It is an open sesame to the heart. We have heard of a college president who held the hearts of the students in his hands. His art was just this simple one of remembering names. It was a rare privilege indeed to meet the president on the street and have him greet you by name, as if he was speaking to his own familiar friend. Many a home- sick freshman received needed help in this way. The mind has wonderful capacity for names. Any of us could fill many pages with the names of those whom we have known first and last in life. Add to these also the names that we have met in books, maga- zines and papers. How great is the multitude ! But after all it is not merely names that should interest us so much, but people, souls behind names. Even the great names of fiction comfort and inspire us. John Halifax, Gentleman ! Adam Bede ! Henry Esmond ! Robinson Crusoe ! It is a misfortune if one must say, " I remember faces, but forget names." There is something worse than this, however, to re- member names, but forget souls ! JANUARY FIVE 5 " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do." Ecclesiastes 9:10. WHATSOEVER! It is a broad word and withal very comprehensive and deep. It is a disconcerting word and full of surprise. It comes down upon us like an avalanche. There is no chance to hedge or compromise or make terms with such a word. Nevertheless, with all its magnitude and its difficulty and its sweep, I submit that we are bound to like this strong word, if we are determined to make something more than a hodge-podge of life in this busy and hard-hitting world. Earnestness is a key that unlocks many doors, and thorough- going is a flag before which most difficulties vanish. There is a certain masterful something that is much prized everywhere, and though it be called by differ- ent names, it is always comprehended in this one word — Whatsoever. It is the spirit that is ready to take hold, to begin wherever there is a chance to begin, and if there be no opportunity, to make one. These are words to encourage men of one talent. The truth is that the bulk of the world's work must be done not by five-talent men, or two-talent men, but by one-talent men — men who will spend no time sor- rowing over their one lone talent, but who will go to work to make the most of what they have. They are " whatsoever " men. They are here to do what- soever their hands find to do. They are here to take hold and make the most of the thing in hand. 6 JANUARY SIX S©tg!)t anO ©entlenestf " Do it with thy might." Ecclesiastes 9:10. IF your hand has found a bit of work to do, do it with your might. Put your heart into it. " The source of power is still in the round tower of the heart." Do not play at your work — do not fumble or grow half-hearted. It is half- hearted that lames the foot for running. It is lacka- daisical that withers the rose on a maiden's cheek. It is lack-luster that kills the spirit even of a giant. " Do it with thy might ! " But do not be mis- taken about this. Doing the Lord's work with one's might is not to work in loud or clumsy fashion, or without gentleness of feeling and delicacy of finish. Do not forget the Lord's sentence about the lilies. " They toil not, neither do they spin." Working with one's might is not working with strain and labor. There is a certain gentleness and delicacy about all true and great work that is the real secret of might. A child may be a stronger worker than a giant. A man who can " carve a cherry-stone " in marble, and do it with his might, is a sculptor. A man who can write a couplet of verse with such in- finite care as other men use in building cathedrals, is a poet. We can work with our might and keep all the while a gentle heart and a delicate hand. JANUARY SEVEN 7 CalleD to 2Dur Mlorfe " Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle." Romans 1:1. ARE we not all called to our work in life? The very word we use for the various occupations of men, callings, is proof of the deep-down feeling of the heart about life's business. By way of distinction we speak of sacred and secular callings. Why may not the latter be as real as the former? Paul was called to be an apostle. You perchance are called to be a farmer, a merchant, a writer. Is it not a calling, just the same, and should you not feel that you are doing your appointed work? It com- forts any man, and inspires him also, to feel that he has been truly called to his work in life. God needs many workmen to do many sorts of work. That my work or yours is common does not make us less work- men of God. It helps one tremendously to feel that he is doing a part of the real work of God's world. When you put your hand to your work to-day or to- morrow reflect that God has called you to your work. There is a sacred uplift in this thought that makes the burden light. Wherever there is a man who is plodding along in his work with eyes to the ground, and a dull sense of burden and hardness at his heart, be sure that he is not thinking as he ought about God's call to the common work of life. 8 JANUARY EIGHT "And Moses said, I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt." Exodus 3:3. AND when the Lord saw that Moses turned aside to see, he called unto him out of the midst of the bush. It is when men lose the sense of wonder out of their souls that they miss the glorious things which God has prepared along life's pathways. " Every bush is aflame with God," but only those who turn aside to see shall find how true this is. An American traveler is reported to have announced his preference for Florence, Italy, that place of a thousand wonders, in enthusiastic language. " Yes," he said, " that's where we got the best butter on the whole trip." Butter, not beauty ! Two men stood together in the glow of the sinking sun. One was overwhelmed with the glory of it. The other remarked casually, " I think it will rain to- morrow." Lost wonder ! Happy is he who has not lost interest in the wonders of God's universe. " My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when I was a boy, So be it when I am a man, Or let me die." The most serious of all troubles of the soul is to lose the sense of wonder toward moral and spiritual grandeur. God pity the heart that does not leap up in the presence of the Cross of Christ ! JANUARY NINE 9 Uncomciom MUumtt " Insomuch that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that as Peter came by, at the least his shadow might overshadow some one of them." Acts 5:15. HERE verily is a true tribute to the uncon- scious influence of character. The shadow of a man, the silent eloquence of a good life — to this we all wish to pay tribute. A man of wealthy character does not know how his wealth spreads into other lives. " Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone." Let us not forget that the work of life is done in two spheres, the sphere of con- scious activity, and the sphere of unconscious in- fluence. We all accept the shadow theory of life. Why did men say that to sit for ten minutes in the presence of Louis Agassiz was to obtain an irresistible argument for immortality ? Why did they say of Dean Stanley that to be in his company was like going out under a clear sky? Why was it said of Emerson by an ignorant washerwoman, that although she did not understand his lectures, it did her good to look at him and hear him speak ? In each case the answer is plain : the shadow of the man overshadowed them, the benediction of character enriched them. One thoroughly good life in a group, what a treasure it is ! The shadow of such a life will fall upon others and do them good. A good man recks not of his influ- ence. He is silent, yet his life speaks. He sleeps and still his power is felt. He walks and his shadow touches other men to heal them. 10 JANUARY TEN Cfte Carlp Daps of tfte Staff " With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two companies." Genesis 32:10. IT is a solemn moment in the life of the man Jacob. The past is coming to meet him in the person of his brother Esau. Now as never be- fore Jacob realizes how wonderful his life has been. He had gone out alone with the meager companion- ship of his staff. He was returning after the in- crease of the years with two companies. All about him were oxen and asses and flocks and menservants and maidservants. Truly God had wrought with a wonder-working hand in his life. But is this in any manner more wonderful than God's dealings with many of us? How small were our beginnings. " With my staff I passed over." How great has been the increase of the years. " Two companies " now ! The life of the ordinary person is full of romance. What interesting changes have taken place. The ten-by-twenty store has be- come a great emporium of trade. The three-acre lot has grown to be a wide-stretching farm. The one- story cottage has given place to a brownstone front. Any one of our lives would make a book. Too often men lose their sense of wonder about life. They forget the early days of the staff. They think that their own " diplomacy of life " has brought every- thing to pass. They fail to realize that God has blessed them and given them the increase. JANUARY ELEVEN 11 JLe00 of tfce Cime0, S@ore of tfte (Eternities "Till I come, give heed to reading." I Timothy 4:13- PAUL'S advice to Timothy is good for us all. Are you making good use of your Bible, are you giving heed to reading? It is a busy age and leisure time is often hard to find. There is much more neglect of the Bible than ever before. There is great reason then for Paul's word of advice, " Give heed to reading." Why should we read the Bible? Here is one rea- son of many — it is a strong book to live and work by. " Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word." " The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life." Truly it is the Book of life. It contains such help as a man needs for a strong intellectual and spiritual life. " Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." The Bible makes a man think and feel. It makes him thrill with the power of God. The Bible is protec- tive also against the invasions of the world upon the soul. " Thy word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against thee." It is guidance, for the Psalmist says that it is a lamp unto the feet and a light unto the path. It is peace. " Great peace have they that love thy law." The Bible links our life to Eternity. Paul is saying in effect, Give less heed to the Times and more heed to the Eternities! 12 JANUARY TWELVE JLotie 3te Omnipotent " God is Love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him/' I John 4:16. LOVE is omnipotent. There are many things that are potent, but love is owm-potent. God is love ! Other revelations have been given, such as God is Light, and God is Power; but this is higher than all others, means more to the heart, answers a deeper call of the soul, speaks to a greater depth, and rises to a greater height than any other. Up and down the world thou hast wandered, O friend, and thou art not satisfied. Thou hast stopped at many schools, many literatures, many sciences, many philosophies. Still there is a craving in thy soul that is not satisfied. Come now and stand before this little sentence. Come study this world-embracing philosophy. Come read these three words of light and power — God is Love. Here may thy wander- ings cease. For the sore heart of man this is enough. This is the old Gospel — old, yet ever new. " Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Love is omnipotent. " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." Mr. Spurgeon was once reading a hymn in the pulpit, one line of which spoke of the open arms of Christ. " Yes," he said, " they are nailed wide open on the cross." Greater love hath no man than this ! Such love is omnipotent. JANUARY THIRTEEN 13 IBuilDing for ©oD " See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God." Exodus 31:2, 3. BEZALEL was skillful enough " in all manner of workmanship " to build the larger parts of the Tabernacle, and he was glad also to put his hand to the fashioning of the smaller parts. " He made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basins, the flesh-hooks, and the firepans." Upon everything he left the touch of his own heart's devotion, for he was filled with the Spirit of God. It was God's plan, and Bezalel left the mark of his own soul upon things great and small. " Bezalel made this slender pin for the fastening of a curtain," they could say. " Bezalel made this bit of a loop or tassel." " Bezalel wrought this slight curve in the wings of the cherubim." We feel, do we not, that we would like to do all our work in that way, putting ourselves into the work, and leaving the mark of our affection upon it. It is this that trans- forms the whole art of building in this life and makes it sublime. It is this that strengthens the hand that holds the tool, and refines the tool as well. It is this that makes the mind keen for impression and apt for expression. It is this also that gives magnitude to little things. Love touches the plan, and new thoughts spring into being. We are not mere tools in God's hand, but workmen who use tools. 14 JANUARY FOURTEEN Cfte Voices of Dumb Cfting0 " For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it." Habakkuk 2:11. THINGS dull and inanimate even remonstrate against injustice and sin. It is as in the days of our Lord on earth — " if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out." If a man build his house by sinning against his soul, the very stones of the foundation shall cry out in protest, and the M beam out of the timber " shall give an answering remonstrance. Dumb things and places often wit- ness against us, like the stone which Joshua set up under the oak by the sanctuary at Shechem. " It hath heard all the words of Jehovah," he said, " which he spake unto us ; it shall be therefore a wit- ness against you, lest ye deny your God." Thus a familiar place may often protest against the man- ner of our life. The spot in the woods where you knelt in prayer and found your God — do not the very stones of that sacred place rebuke you when you turn away from him? The church where you made your early vows — do not the stones cry out of the wall and the beam answer out of the timber because of your present forgetfulness and neglect? A path- way through the meadow, a tree by the door, a sign at the cross-roads, the sound of a bell, may be enough to remind us of forgotten duty. JANUARY FIFTEEN 15 3n OneipecteD places " Lay aside every weight." Hebrews 12:1. THERE are weights in unexpected places. For example, there are weights in pockets. There is many a man who cannot run the race, because his pockets weigh him down. Besides, he must needs keep his hands in his pockets, which is an ill thing for running. There are weights in thought and in imagination. When this is so, we neither fly nor go. We do not rise above the earth. We neither dream nor soar. We are worms of the dust, with folded wings within us that have never tried the upper air. Oh, for the power to lay aside the weights of thought and rise to higher themes ! There are weights in the customs and conventions of the world, in the " social lies that warp the truth." What will society say? What will society do? The world's bondage is upon us still, and we have no free spirit for the race. How hard it is to lay aside the weights of old traditions, old habits, old conven- tionalities. How the world stares and sticks its tongue into its cheek, when one breaks away from bondage and starts unencumbered down the course! There are weights in prejudice, and these are almost hardest of all to lay aside. One carries them without knowing it, even exulting in the encumbrance. It is upon others that these weights of prejudice press hard. 16 JANUARY SIXTEEN &o Deeper! " Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." n Peter 3:18. WE hear it often said that the soul needs breadth. No, it is not breadth that we need so much as depth. God is always call- ing us to deepen our lives by a fuller experience of his Grace. His Grace is high like the mountains, and deep like the ocean. He bids us grow in the heights and depths of his Grace. It is a pity that so many of us skim the surface only, when we might be revelling in the fullness of God's Grace. This is what a spiritual life is — it is a life that is deep through the experiences of divine Grace. We have seen lives that seemed to us to have imbibed of God's fullness. In their presence we were conscious of great depths within them. There were about them a still- ness, a repose, a wealth of the inner life that left upon us the impression of unfathomable resource. Some lives are easily exhausted, their shallows soon run away. Depth is not showy, but it lasts a long time. So many little things, trifling things, lose their importance when we revel in God's Grace and grow deep and strong in the knowledge of Christ. So many troublesome doubts disappear beneath the waves of the ocean of Grace. So many false tem- pers, and ugly wrinkles, and personal peccadillos are smoothed out by the wonder of God's Grace. Go deeper ! JANUARY SEVENTEEN 17 Cfie $me anD tfie jfig Cree " But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree." Micah 4:4. IT is appointed unto men to be dwellers, not roamers. " A rolling stone gathers no moss." A fixed habitation should be each man's ambi- tion, with the protection and joy of private life. " Under his vine and under his fig tree ! " It is a picture of domestic felicity that neither artists nor poets can surpass. The vine is the symbol of Peace and the fig tree is the symbol of Plenty. Peace and Plenty — and are not these two important desires of life ? Peace with God and with man — if this be what it is to sit under the vine, then indeed it is a thing greatly to be desired. And Plenty — of this world's goods, if it please God. But more especially other kinds of Plenty. To sit beneath the fig tree and feel one's soul going out in good will to his fel- lowmen — oh, that is a kind of Plenty that the world stands in need* of. To be rich in brotherly-kindness and in tender compassion, so that no word of ill con- cerning man shall be spoken " under the fig tree " ; to be unselfish and deeply considerate, so that rich sup- plies shall flow out to society from " under his fig tree " — it is this kind of Plenty that all the world desires. 18 JANUARY EIGHTEEN "We love, because he first loved us." I John 4:19. ARE we not right in saying that our Lord looks anxiously everywhere to-day for loyalty? Let us awaken anew to the obligations of dis- cipleship, and give ourselves again to a grand trans- figuring devotion to his cause. All they who follow their Lord afar off ; they who are " at ease in Zion " ; they who excuse themselves from the feast, having bought a piece of ground, or five yoke of oxen, or having married a wife ; they who slumber on Sabbath morning, or bury themselves twenty fathoms deep in the vast worldliness of the newspaper, with the sound of worship in the air; they who shrink at the call of duty, and cringe beneath the Lord's burdens ; they who count it a little thing to disattach themselves from membership in God's house — God help us all to see how unchivalrous are all such things, and how petty and paltry are the excuses and infidelities and disloyalties that mar the grand devotion and leal- hearted affection to which we are called in Christ our Lord. Christ has ennobled us and enriched us by his love. Now — Noblesse oblige! Nobility lays obli- gations upon us. " We love, because he first loved us." If we can do aught for his cause, let it be out of a full heart. Chivalrous love does not hesitate or haggle. It is not a bargaining love. It is the love of a grand devotion. JANUARY NINETEEN 19 Learning $alue0 in tfie ^anctuarp " Blessed are they that dwell in thy house." Psalms 84:4. THE Bible furnishes a university training in spiritual values. If the student takes up his Rhetoric to determine the value of words and sentences, or his Chemistry to determine the value of atoms and molecules, or his Mathematics to de- termine the value of figures, let not the student of spiritual values fail to turn to his Bible. Artists often keep high colors before their eyes as they paint, in order to enchance their sense of color. So God has given us his Book to standardize our thoughts and tastes, to lift our life to higher levels. That exercise of a man's soul which we call Prayer — what a force it is in training men for right valua- tion of things. To pray is to give the soul a set toward the spiritual and the invisible. Men who never pray are " children of the mist." No light breaks out of the East. There is no bell sounding deep in the soul. There is no summons from across the deep sea. Each time we cross the threshold of God's house there is an opportunity to establish the heart in the grand things of God's kingdom. This is the divine economy of the sanctuary: it is the place to learn spiritual values. A life-long habit of wor- ship — how sweet a thing it is to a weary traveler on the world's dusty ways. 20 JANUARY TWENTY " Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit." Psalms 51:12. HAVE we lost heart and grown spiritless? Have we suffered any sort of a stagnation in the soul, so that the angel no longer comes down to stir the waters of the pool? Have we un- dergone a " sort of loss of appetite in the mind," so that we have no hunger and thirst for spiritual food? David in another place cries out, "My soul is athirst for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and weary land where no water is." It is a weary land indeed if the soul be not refreshed from on high. One of the main offices of the Holy Spirit is to restore worn spirits, to bring again the joy of salvation. God loves to hear this prayer on the earth, " Uphold me with a willing spirit." Then he knows that souls are realizing their need, and are coming to the fountain-head. Do we feel that noth- ing is worth while, not even goodness, nor patience, nor courage, nor hope, nor faith, nor gentleness, nor any of the fine things of the Kingdom? The soul is jaded and worn; it needs a renewing, a restoration from on high. The Spirit is ever near to meet such needs. The miasms and contagions of earth are too much for us. We need the Spirit of God to work a continuous restoration in us, to keep the joy of sal- vation unworn and untarnished. JANUARY TWENTY-ONE 21 ConfiDenttal jFrienD0 " No longer do I call you servants — but I have called you friends." John 15:15. FRIENDS! With this good word the Master reminded his disciples of the intimate relations of honor and privilege into which he had called them. Our Lord does not keep us at arm's length as one might do with a servant. " The serv- ant knoweth not what his lord doeth." He invites us to share the intimacies of friendship, and one of the best of these intimacies is just the privilege of not being afraid. The friend is upon terms of friend- ship — that is his standing. He comes and goes in that way. He need not observe too many formali- ties. If he should fail to knock at the door, it would be easily forgiven. When Christ calls his disciples friends, he means that they shall not feel bound or hampered in his presence. To be a friend of Christ is to have free- dom and gladness with him — just as Peter was free when he started to walk to him on the water, and John when he leaned on his bosom at the supper, and Levi when he made a supper in his own house for him, and Mary when she anointed him. It is a wonderful, revealing companionship, and intimate in the deepest way. " So near, so very near to God, Nearer I cannot be, For in the person of his Son I am as near as he." 22 JANUARY TWENTY-TWO Cfte ark fn tfje J^ouse " And the ark of Jehovah remained in the house of Obed=edom the Gittite three months; and Jehovah blessed Obed=edom and all his house." II Samuel 6:n. WHAT a wonderful three months in the house of Obed-edom, with the Ark of the Cove- nant always there, morning, noon, and night ! We are not told that worldly prosperity in- creased, but Jehovah blessed Obed-edom and all his house." ' Something new and wonderful was among them, an influence that made life more solemn, more important, more joyous. For one thing, their toil must have been sanctified. Think of standing by the Ark in the early morning and then going out into the field to plow with the oxen. Toil is such a com- mon thing — every one must work. But to sanctify our toil, to go from the presence of the Ark, and to work with its influence upon us — that is the uncom- mon thing. It is this indeed that makes " the won- der and bloom " of the world, and causes a thousand surprises to grow in the hard places where men do their work. To be working away with one's hands or one's brains, to be meeting the shocks of the world, to be doing this day after day, with a strange light in the face, and with a great, mysterious uplifting secret in the soul — this is what comes from having the Ark in the house. One can afford to be battered about in the world, and misunderstood and even maligned, if all the while the Ark of the Presence is in the house to heal and strengthen the soul. JANUARY TWENTY-THREE 23 2Bell0 of Valuation " Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." Isaiah 12:3. THE Gospel is everything to one who accepts it fully. Wells of Salvation — twelve wells and seventy palm trees, such as the children of Israel found at Elim. " Wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption." What can we not find for the soul's good in the Gospel? " Christ is all and in all." In him we are " enriched in all things." " All things are yours." " Like a tree planted by the streams of water." What have you to say of these wells of salvation? Have they ever run dry or shown any signs of failing? When heavy sorrows came, when circumstances became more and more narrowing, did the wells of salvation fail you? This Gospel of ours is food and drink for the soul. Go often to the wells. No fear of draining them out. They reach down to the Rock of Ages. You need comfort or direction or refreshing this week. Re- member the wells of salvation. You are weary this week, needing enlivenment. Go to the wells of sal- vation. You are thirsty to-day with a thirst that is deep in the soul. Hasten to the wells of salvation. And when you draw, do not forget how to draw — " with joy." Too often we are like indolent boys at the well, wanting the water, but not joyous in the drawing. " With joy — with joy — shall ye draw ! " 24 JANUARY TWENTY-FOUR Large am&itiong " I must also see Rome." Acts 19:21. WE might have thought that a man of Paul's Jewish temper would have been satisfied with Jerusalem. No, he said, " After I have been there, I must also see Rome." He had de- termined, if God willed, to carry the Gospel to the political and moral center of the world. " As much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you also that are in Rome." It was not a mere personal ambition that filled his mind. He was not thinking of the temples and altars of Rome, of the ancient Forum and the Golden Milestone. His ambition was for the Gospel. The Gospel of Christ was not a provincial gospel; it must be heard in the world's greatest center. What about our ambitions for the cause of Christ? Ought they not to be like Paul's ? " I must also see Rome." Let us not shrink the Gospel. Let us have great ambitions for Christ and his cause. The Span- ish writers say of Christopher Columbus, " He had a taste for great things." And should not every be- liever in Christ have a taste for great things? Let us undertake for Christ! America is not enough for him. " I must also see Rome." Carry the Gospel to India and China and Africa and to the " uttermost part." No narrow ambitions in the kingdom. Let me do more as the days go by, rather than less. Let me have large, not small, ambitions for the cause of my Lord. JANUARY TWENTY-FIVE 25 atoakeneo S©en " Awake, psaltery and harp; I myself will awake right early." Psalms 108:2. WHEN the Psalmist cries, " Awake, psaltery and harp," he remembers immediately that he himself must first awake. Therefore he adds, " I myself will awake right early." Of what use to invoke psaltery and harp in the morning unless the musician himself hath preceded the dawn? Vain to call upon wood and fiber and iron to do their work, when human feeling is dull, human love asleep, human purpose unwaking. " A cithern," so runs the Tal- mud, " used to hang above David's bed ; and when the midnight came the north wind blew among the strings, so that they sounded of themselves ; and forthwith he arose and busied himself with the Tora until the pillar of the dawn ascended." The night wind could play among the strings, but the soul of the musician was needed to make the music real. It is the soul power of awakened men that this world needs. " So few of us are really wide awake," says the cynic. There is some truth in his saying. Many of us are trying to make music with instru- ments, when we ourselves are not yet awake. " Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee." Often it seems that men are expecting the world to grow better by musical instruments and machinery, by organs, by railroads, by steam whistles, by electricity. It will not be so. The formula for a better world is here: " I myself will awake." God needs awakened men. 26 JANUARY TWENTY-SIX Cfte §>en0ttttoene00 of 3fe0us " Some one did touch me." Luke 8:46. THE New Testament word means more than touch, it means to feel about after. Do you see how the Master's sentence reads then? " Some one did feel about after me." Somebody here in this solitude is interested enough to be trying to find me. Somebody here has a special need and is reaching out in a blind way, if perchance he may seek me and find me. We cannot miss the force of the word when it comes to us in this way. No doubt with this woman it was just such a groping in the dark as the words suggest. It was a half blind and staggering thing that she did. One is reminded of that sad Old Testament scene where the dismantled giant Samson put out his hands in his blindness to feel after the pillars of the temple of Dagon. He was feeling after strength, after something to lean upon. And so also was this woman — she was feeling after strength. When we recall our own blind and groping way of coming to God, we are ready to give this poor piece of suffering humanity our fullest sym- pathy. But the wonder of it all is that Jesus was so sensitive to that faint touch of hers. It was the pressure of need that he felt, and the pressure of faith. He knew that some one who needed strength was feeling after him. Jesus feels the lightest pres- sure of need. JANUARY TWENTY-SEVEN Tt Personal Property " Ask him: he is of age: he shall speak for himself." John 9:21. EACH man must speak for himself on the sub- ject of religion. There is nothing so personal as a man's religious life. We can share the results of religion with others, but religion itself — that is deeply personal. It should mean a great deal to us all to know that down deep in our lives we can have each of us something that is our very own, something that is absolutely personal, something that fits into our needs, runs into the very mold of our lives, and draws forth the best that we can give. There is no proxy in religion. No man can delegate his religion to another, not even to his wife. There is no evasion of this intense individualism of religion. " Ask him ; he shall speak for himself." Religion is personal property in the most absolute sense. It moves with a man when he moves. It is the indwell- ing factor of his life which circumstances do not con- trol. It is the intimate subject of his own hopes and dreams, the material of that profound potency of hu- man nature which is called Faith. This is the real preciousness of our religion — it is so deeply per- sonal, so real in our experience. Men can rob us of things, but they cannot take away our inner life and experience. However poor we are, we may be rich in such personal property. 28 JANUARY TWENTY-EIGHT Cfje 3fog of Companionship " I and some few men with me." Nehemiah 2:12. NEHEMIAH was a strong man. Nevertheless he felt the need of companionship. There- fore when he made his famous nighttime journey around the broken-down walls of Jerusalem, he went not alone, but took " some few men " with him. The weak need the help of the strong. That is not all — the strong need the help of the weak. Strong man that he was, the apostle Paul was very dependent upon others. He spoke gratefully of the " men that have been a comfort unto me." " There must be many a pair of friends," is a true saying. God has made rich provision in this world for companionship. He " setteth the solitary in fam- ilies." He has given to every man, even the lowliest, a friend. He has greatly blessed those instincts of our hearts that lead us to walk and work together. One of our essayists writes these joyful words: "I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends." The comradeships of life — how much they do for us. " Iron sharpeneth iron ; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." Many a man is inspired and strengthened to breast the world's storm by the quiet woman at his side. Many a man is made a better man daily in the fierce battle of life by the memory of a child's light touch upon his hand. Let us pray God to help us to grow into life's deep meanings through the rich companionships wherewith he hath blessed us. M JANUARY TWENTY-NINE 29 Cf)g Comforts " In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy corn- forts delight my soul." Psalms 94:19. * * T\ /f Y mind to me a kingdom is." Sir Walter Soott thought that he could live con- tentedly even in a dungeon as long as his imagination was left to him. " Sell your clothes," writes an essayist, " and keep your thoughts." Store up riches in the mind by meditation, by reading, by conversation, by experience. The truly educated man is not necessarily the man who has studied many things, but the man who by study has enlarged and deepened his mental resources. Yet the multitude of thoughts in the mind is not enough for comfort. The fuller our mental resource the more empty we feel at times. Some commenta- tors tell us that the word thoughts means literally the small branches of trees. When the wind blows they are confused and tangled. The multitude of tangled thoughts — who does not know this state of mind ? The margin reads doubts. Let a sorrow come into your life, and where is your philosophic calm, your boasted mental resource? Let the pressure of sin be felt upon the soul, and where is your consolation to be found? Something else is needed besides mental resource. " Thy comforts delight my soul." The divine Presence, the health of his countenance, the assurance of unbounded love and comprehension, the grace of forgiveness and restoration, — the soul needs such comforts as these for the multitude of thoughts. 30 JANUARY THIRTY Cfte Dap of Rest " The seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah thy God." Exodus 20:10. NEVER has there been any other such be- neficent economy as the Lord's rest day. It has kept the world going. Work is one of God's greatest blessings, but God never meant that we should overwork. The busy industries of civiliza- tion only emphasize the value of the day of rest. An unresting civilization cannot long do its work well. This law of one in seven seems to be written with the finger of nature. Physiologists have proved that one in ten would be insufficient. It is poor wisdom to try to circumvent and cheat nature. Say what you will about the " old-fashioned Sabbath " — at least nervous prostration was a rare trouble then. Not to speak of the call to worship, those quiet old-fashioned Sabbaths afforded wonderful opportunities for filling the reservoir with strength. There is a tone of rest- ful strength about all our nation's early. history. Let us beware lest we lose our poise by neglecting the day of rest. God understands the strain, the wear and tear of life, and gives us this foil for our weakness. The Rest Day is the returning providence of every week. It meets our weariness with the precision of clockwork. It glides into our lives like a medicine, touching us with quiet, relieving the tension, remov- ing the strain and the pressure. All the king's horses and all the king's men cannot bring us our needed rest. Only the Sabbath of the Lord our God can do this. JANUARY THIRTY-ONE 31 {Hitting, not IBazkiw " Abide in me, and I in you." John 15:4. THE saintly Bengel was accustomed to close each day with a prayer — " Lord Jesus, it is just the same as ever between thee and me." The confidence of this ejaculation of the soul is altogether beautiful and justifiable. Yet it is easy to see that one might rest too comfortably in the self-compla- cency of such a prayer. It might become a counsel of inaction ; it might hide from view a great amount of dawdling in the Kingdom of God. When Horace Bushnell was an old man he met a young man one Monday morning hurrying away to the ministers' meeting. Asking for the subject of the meeting, he was told that the subject was, "Abiding in Christ." " It is a good subject," said the old man, " but remem- ber that abiding in Christ is not basking in Christ." No, it is not basking, nor is it resting in the sense of inaction, nor is it in any way imposing upon Christ. There is a sense in which it should not always be the same with us in our relation to our Lord and Master. Abiding is growing. More surprise, more wonder, more glory to-day than yesterday. What can I do to-day for my Master that I have not done before? What door of opportunity can I enter? What new interpretation of his spirit can I give? What better illustration of his power can I furnish? 32 FEBRUARY ONE Cfte i^oitge beautiful " And blue, and purple, and scarlet and fine linen." Exodus 25:4. WE are not surprised that the Tabernacle was strong. There were boards and bars and sockets and pillars, symbols of that strength which belongs to Jehovah and his worship- ers. But it was also a House Beautiful. What a thrill we feel with these words — " and blue, and pur- ple, and scarlet and fine linen." No parsimony here, no paucity, no stinting of material or workmanship, no slipping in of lower grades, no culls, no left- overs, no good-for-nothing-else goods. Nothing of this, but the best they had. Observe the candlesticks ! A straight upright of gold on a stand will make a candlestick. But these candlesticks must blossom out like trees, with their branches on either side. And the cups. A round cup will hold oil. But no, the cups must be " like unto almond blossoms " with knops and flowers. It was the eye of an artist — the Great Artist — that asked for all this. God was telling these worshipers of the olden time that they must not rob or stint their Heavenly Father. Look at the curtains ! You who are skilled in needle- work, study the broidery, and the loops of blue, and the clasps of gold. And see the pomegranates of blue and purple and twined linen on the hems of the priests' garments. A bell and a pomegranate! There it is again — the rubric of beauty ! God loves beauty! FEBRUARY TWO 33 gou mill 15t 9@tsseD " Thou wilt be missed, because thy seat will be empty." I Samuel 20:18. THE point that Jonathan made was that David was expected to be in his place. If his seat was empty he would be missed. If it is true that " every man's life is a plan of God," there are places we are expected to occupy and there is work we are expected to do. . God expects every man to be in his place. You will be missed if your seat is empty ! How many empty seats there are in this world — places prepared for men who never came to take them. It startles us to think of this. God has arranged some work for me to do, and I have never put my hand to the doing of it. Does the work still wait, or must another do it? At any rate I am missed because my seat is empty. Some place of duty has been summoning you for many days, and the seat is still empty. It had no attraction for you ; it seemed too hard for you. You are missed from the place of duty. There has been a seat in God's house awaiting you, and a place at the Lord's Table, my friend, lo 1 these many years, and you have never come to occupy it. It is yowr place; you are expected there. You will be missed if your seat is empty. Is it not a sorrowful thing to mar God's plan? 34 FEBRUARY THREE Cfte personal Coucj) " The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand, which, is the token in every epistle." II Thessalonians 3:17. IT was hard work with his poor eyes. I can see the little old apostle ("Paul the aged") bend- ing low over the page to write his personal salu- tation and to affix his name at the end of the letter to the Thessalonians. He could dictate the body of his message, but he could not send the letter on its way without adding a personal touch with his own hand. It is " the token in every epistle," he said. If you find my poor scrawl at the end (" see with how large letters I write," he said to the Galatians), you may rest assured that the letter is genuine. Do we real- ize as we ought that the world needs the personal touch? " With mine own hand." Why do we value hand-made above machine-made products? Because the personal touch is upon them, the mark of personal care and skill. The best things of this world cannot be made by machinery. Friendship for example — there must ever be a personal touch in friendship to make it worth while. " You do not know your friend by his buttons." Charity also — it is the personal touch here that warms the heart more than the gift. Not yours, but you ! " The gift without the giver is bare." And religion — the world needs the personal touch in religion. Indeed this is the token in religion — does a man put his own hand to his creed? FEBRUARY FOUR 35 Wibtu Do gou JLitief 5 " Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight." Acts 9:11. IT does not matter much what street you live on, or which house you occupy, so that the street is called Straight. Indeed we can go further and say that it does not matter much where the body lives, so that the soul lives in the right place and in the right way. Where does your soul live? Does it live in the street called Straight, or does it live in crooked places ? It was a fine message which old Ben Jonson sent to a man who had spoken ill of his worldly conditions. " He despises me," said the phil- osopher, " because I live in an alley. Tell him that his soul lives in an alley." Who are they whose souls live in alleys ? The selfish man, because he shuts him- self up to the narrow circle of self. The unloving man, because he dwarfs himself by preventing the en- largement that comes to the soul by love. The un- helpful man, because he never lets himself out into the wide and joyous places of service. The unbe- lieving man, because he fails to enter by faith into the great life and peace of God. The unspiritual man, because he does not take advantage of the freedom wherewith Christ hath made him free. The insincere man, because he does not walk in the light of truth. Let us go into the street called Straight and live there. 36 FEBRUARY FIVE Lessons of tfte Darkness " I will give thee the treasures of darkness." Isaiah 45^3. ARE there treasures of darkness? Yes, because " the darkness and the light are both alike " to him. 6i God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night." Evening and morn- ing were required to make a day. He made them both, and he hath put treasures in darkness as well as in light. It is hard for us to believe that the shadows that fall upon life contain anything of value for us. It is nevertheless true. He who will search through even the greatest of his distresses and sor- rows will find that God has hidden away " treasures of darkness." Every good picture must be a min- gling of light and shadow. The Italians have a term that describes this — chiaroscuro — clear-obscure. Life must be like this, some light, some shadow. The sundial would be of no value without the light, neither would it be of any avail without the shadow. " The shadow shows that there is light above." One of the treasures of the shadowy places in life is just the possibility of finding ourselves and realizing the better part of life. The full glare of the light often deceives us: we do not know our own needs. But when the darkness comes we understand ourselves bet- ter. We realize our needs, we find out our own deep dependence. The darkness is a great teacher, if we are willing to be taught. Its lessons are profound and real. FEBRUARY SIX 37 Cfte "Banquet Cafile " He brought me to the banqueting=house, and his ban- ner over me was love." Song of Solomon 2:4. f I "\HERE are times when God brings us to his banqueting-house, and sets the mark of his love above us in a special manner. There upon the full table of our Lord we see spread out be- fore us all the wealth of his possessions, love, par- don, grace, joy, peace — a finished redemption, a full salvation. In such an hour the voice of our Lord speaks to us, saying, " Come and break your fast." The lean days are past and gone and you are now at the Lord's rich table. What are your desires? Nay, what are your needs ? " My God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Remember it is the Lord's ban- queting-house to-day, and his banner over you is love. Alas ! if you have no appetite at his full table ! A thousand pities if you turn away from his hospitality, your soul still lean and fasting, your heart unfilled and hungry. Why live at this " poor dying rate," when your Lord has come that you may have life? Why should the seasick suffer in sight of land, or the homesick languish within reach of home? And why should hungry hearts perish when the door to God's banqueting-house stands open? 38 FEBRUARY SEVEN Cran0patent Character " And this I pray, . . . that ye may be sincere and void of offense." Philippians 1:9, 10. A MODERN translator makes this read, " so that ye may be men of transparent charac- ter." The word translated sincere means literally tried by sunlight. This is Paul's prayer, that their lives may be transparent, sincere, unsullied, pure, so that the light can shine through. Tried by sunlight — only a transparent character can en- dure such' a test. Did the Psalmist mean this when he said that God desires " truth in the inward parts " ? Yes, God desires to see his grace operating in souls in such a way as to make a clear pathway for the light. " In whose heart are the highways to Zion," says the Psalmist. How wonderful it is to have a heart so open to God that his light can travel through it without interruption. How many things there are that keep the light from shining through, things that destroy transparent character — hatred, envy, jeal- ousy, foes every one to transparency. " He that hateth his brother is in the darkness." But there are other things that are not so often suspected of interrupting the light. Prejudice, for example, and suspicion, and selfishness, and bitterness and pride. It is hard for the light to get through any of these. FEBRUARY EIGHT 39 Crut& Granger timtt jFtctton " It was written in the book of the chronicles before the King." Esther 2:23. WHY is it that truth is stranger than fic- tion? Because God is behind the truth. " There's a divinity that shapes our ends." God stands within the shadow " keeping watch above his own." This is the lesson of this interesting, ad- venturous story of •Esther. Two of the chamberlains sought to lay hands on the King, and the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it to Esther, and she to the King. There was no reward, but " it was writ- ten in the book of the chronicles." Here is the key. For afterwards when things were going as ill as pos- sible with Esther and Mordecai, the King had a sleep- less night, and called for the book of records. And as the King's servants read to him, what should they come upon but the story of how Mordecai had saved the King's life ! Then came the turning of the tables. " It was written," and no one could gainsay the record. Can we not believe that God knows and that he cares for his own? But why, you say, do things go so ill with me? Why do the wicked flourish, and I, God's child, am left unrequited? Unknown to you God is preparing the key. The record is being kept. Your fidelity is being written in the book of remem- brance. Some time the truth will come out, for truth is stranger than fiction. 40 FEBRUARY NINE a £©an of Letters ** All my affairs shall Tychicus make known unto you." Colossians 4:7. THE rosary of Paul's friends is very beautiful. With what generous words he speaks of them. Lord, give me grace to be both just and gen- erous to my friends. We know but one thing about Tychicus, that he possessed the unbounded confidence of Paul. " The beloved brother and faithful min- ister and fellow-servant in the Lord." This is enough. He was not destined to be great. His sole gift was in being faithful. When Tychicus left the apostle's prison in Rome to travel eastward, he carried with him, as the apostle's messenger, two immortal letters of the Gospel, the Epistle to the Colossians and the Epistle to the Ephesians, and probably a third one also, the Epistle to Philemon. Was not this honor enough for a faithful man, to be permitted to .carry three of the New Testament let- ters to their destination? Truly he has the distinc- tion of being " a man of letters." No man can ever truly touch Jesus Christ without coming into the light. " Together with Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother." Thereby hangs an interesting Gospel story (read the Epistle to Philemon). Paul mentions other names, Aristarchus, Mark, Justus, and then he adds a wonderful tribute — " men that have been a comfort unto me." Oh, it would be worth while indeed to have some one think that I had been a comfort to him! FEBRUARY TEN 41 Silence in ^eatoen " And when he opened the seventh seal, there followed a silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." Revelation 8:1. THAT half-hour of silence in heaven — what was the reason of it? Some say it was a silence of awesome expectation, full of fearful wondering as to what would come. " Great things were upon the wheel of God's providence, and the church of God, both in heaven and earth, stood silent as became them, to see what God was doing." y So writes an old commentator. " Be silent, all flesh, before Jehovah," cries the prophet Zechariah. There are times when silence is the natural attitude of the soul — times when speech must cease — when music is impossible — when only silence is the lan- guage of the heart. In such times the soul wishes to think and be still. Perhaps these heavenly scenes are after all a transcript of earthly experiences. The stage is heavenly, the meaning is earthly. It may be so with the half-hour of silence in heaven. It is saying to us that we need silence, thought, medita- tion. " Be still and know that I am God." Silence is wholesome for the soul. " He who speaks sows, he who listens reaps." The Greeks spoke of Epam- inondas as one who " will listen eternally. We require much time to listen in this life, for there is much to hear. He who is never silent misses a vast deal. " While I was musing," says the Psalmist, " the fire burned." It may be that the silences of life are our most useful times. 42 FEBRUARY ELEVEN ©anDicappeO ILitoeg " There was given to me a thorn in the flesh — And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness." II Corinthians 12:7,9. EVERY man must have his handicap. It is nature's way. It is God's plan of education. " The philosopher is tormented with a tooth- ache." Paul did his great work with some thorn of suffering in his flesh. Ten thousand victories are won every day by those who toil amid their handicaps. Cicero thought that Julius Caesar would never make a soldier, and Disraeli spoke of Gladstone as a young man without a future. Phillips Brooks at gradua- tion was urged by his president not to try to preach. Dwight L. Moody fairly broke his way into the pul- pit, and David Livingstone broke down utterly in his first service. Blessed are they who know the inspiration of defeat, who learn how to be " faithful failures." Adversity is a good school indeed if it teach us how to be strong and how to win greater victories. The world can never forget Milton's blindness and his " ear become angelic." Kitto writing his first book in the parish workhouse, Mozart composing his " Requiem " with disease invad- ing his body, Sir Walter Scott writing " The Bride of Lammermoor " with a burden of debt upon him, Sidney Lanier, " inheritor of an unfulfilled renown," who faced death for years, yet left a deep mark upon the world — these and ten thousand others teach us the lesson true that handicap is not defeat. FEBRUARY TWELVE 43 ^imt*up places " Jehovah is a god of the hills, but he is not a god of the valleys." i Kings 20:28. THE hill-tops are God's, but not the valleys. So the Syrians thought, but they soon found that a change of battle-field from the hills to the valleys did not bring them a victory against Israel. It was false reasoning then, and it is false now. Yet how often we indulge in this false way of thinking about God. He is God of our faith, but not of our conduct. He is God of our open rebel- lion, but not of our secret sins. He is God of our sanctuary, but not of our business. He is God of our prayers, but not of our pockets. He is God of our heart, but not of our conscience. He is God of our emotions, but not of our will. He is God of our sorrows, but not of our joys. He is God of our problems, but not of our pleasures. There are so many shut-up places in life into which we do not fully admit God. We expect God as a matter of course to come into the great experi- ences of our life, but too often we keep him out of the lesser times and places. W T hy not the valleys as well as the hills? Why not that sharp temper of yours as well as your conscience? Why not that difficult tongue as well as the heart that believes? Why not the whole of your disposition as well as the worship of your soul? 44 FEBRUARY THIRTEEN " Henceforth let no man trouble me." Galatians 6:17. THESE are the words of a believer who is thoroughly satisfied with Christ. He de- clares that he himself has no other name to glory in but Christ's, and nothing else to boast of but the Cross of Christ. He declares that what a man does for the sake of fulfilling a rite or ceremony is in itself of no avail, but what a man is — " a new creature." How true is the ring of the Gospel here as we know it in our precious experience. Our deep- est satisfaction is not in the mere observance of religious forms : but rather in the contentment we have with Christ as our Saviour, the knowledge we have that he has come into our lives and made us new, given us new hopes and wishes and plans, widened our spiritual horizon, and in every way enlarged the measure of our life. So vivid is Paul's experience of Christ that he says, " Henceforth let no man trouble me." I am satisfied. I am a child of God through Christ, and I am going all the way with him. I belong to him, " for I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus." Oh, that the world may see the marks of Jesus on us, and know that we are his ! Oh, that these very marks — the marks of his love and sacrifice — may be to us a perpetual reminder that we are his, and may call us back from all our wan- derings to walk by his side! FEBRUARY FOURTEEN 45 Jciutnepittg ©n and atoap " Then Jacob went on his journey." Genesis 29:1. THIS is more than a historical statement. It is the record of the journeying on of a man who had had a wonderful experience. He had been where angels of God were ascending and de- scending. He had been made the recipient of a gracious promise. He had himself taken a solemn vow. " Then Jacob went on his journey." Not alone a literal journey from Bethel, but a spiritual journey away to the land of forgetfulness. The story of the twenty years that follow is mostly a story of gains and prosperity. . The man Jacob waxed great, but there is never a word about his vows at Bethel, never a hint about the great experi- ence that came to him there. He had gone on his journey and left Bethel behind. If God had not fol- lowed him out into the barren years, he might have wandered on to destruction. It is a question always for our souls — have we gone on our journey and left any true and great experience behind? What about that momentous decision? What of that solemn promise to God? What of those deep experiences of pain and sorrow? What of the times of heart-break and desolation? What of the hours of spiritual revealing when life was truly like 6i the gate of heaven " ? Few trage- dies of the soul are more sorrowful than that of one who journeys on and away from holy places. 46 FEBRUARY FIFTEEN MJrottg anO IRigijt (gmpimsts " The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, bring when thou contest, and the books, especially the parch= ments." II Timothy 4:13. IF Paul had said, " especially the cloak," we might have feared that he was laying emphasis on the wrong thing. But he said, " especially the parchments," and therein is a lesson worth while. He needed the cloak to be sure to cover his shivering body in the prison, but most of all he needed the parchments, for these were spiritual food. The cloak or the parchment — where shall the' chief em- phasis lie? Our choices dominate us. They color our life. If we think more of garments than of grace, life will take on the corresponding tone. Taste does not grow up over night. We need training in values, just as painters need training in colors. Jesus Christ is the great expert in values. He has come to give us abundant life through our own choice of the best. " Especially the parchments." Food for the soul to grow upon — let the emphasis of life lie there. And when the crisis is on, when " the time of my de- parture is at hand," it is the solace of things spiritual that lies closest to the soul. One who has lived for the high things of the Kingdom of God, and set the emphasis of his life upon the grand values of God in Christ, has made for himself an unlimited resource. He is free indeed whom Christ makes free. " Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage." FEBRUARY SIXTEEN 47 jQo S©ean QLitv " But Paul said, I am ... a citizen of no mean city." Acts 21:39. THERE is a just pride which every man ought to have in his own locality. " Imagine, if you can," says a writer, " that the axis of the earth projects from the center of your village square." It is true that such pride may become overweening and foolish, but when it is cherished with wise reserve in the heart it becomes both an orna- ment and a source of power. One can almost excuse the proud feeling of Naaman the Syrian captain, when he said, " Are not Abanah and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? " No mighty Hudson or Mississippi can take the place in our heart's affection of the little stream that passed by the place in which we were born. So ought men to feel always about their own, not the bigot's pride, nor the selfish man's exclusiveness, but the just pride of ownership, of sentiment, of the heart's ro- mantic feeling. Believe, if you can, that God has set your feet in a large place. Believe that he has given you the sweetest bit of mold to stand upon in all the earth. Believe that the light of the divine Presence shines in the very dwelling where you are, and upon the very common task you are doing. " I am a citizen of no mean city." 48 FEBRUARY SEVENTEEN H2etier &iu CJp " And let us not be weary in well=doing: for in due sea= son we shall reap, if we faint not." Galatians 6:9. BE not weary — that is, literally, do not behave badly in well-doing. That is, further, do not flag, do not faint, do not lose heart, do not let go courage. Never give up ! " And he spake a parable unto them to the end that they ought always to pray, and " not to behave badly — not to faint." We speak of a soldier behaving badly in battle. We mean that his heart failed him, he let go, he gave up. It was the apostle's idea of faithfulness in the min- istry. " Therefore seeing we have this minis- try, even as we have obtained mercy," we do not behave badly — " we faint not." If one may use a common word — the apostle means that we are not to funk out in our Christian life and* service. What shall we say of the scores of worn-out, frazzled-out, exhausted Christians? The least we can say is that they have behaved badly in the Chris- tian life. Like the soldier in battle they have lost heart and given up. And what shall we say of all the half-hearted, spiritless, lackadaisical, fainting workers in the kingdom? What shall we say of the "quitters " in the Christian life? It is a thousand pities to be worsted in well-doing. It is a contradic- tion. There is absolutely no reason for it. Here is the word of assurance. " In due season we shall reap, if we faint not." FEBRUARY EIGHTEEN 49 mm 30 Beaton? " They serve him day and night in his temple." Revelation 7:15. A SPIRITUAL state in which there is no zest for right and righteousness, a place of worn- out souls, a place of departed glory, a place of infinite spiritual loss, declension, defeat and decay — that is Hell ! It can begin here : it often does. And what is Heaven? It is a place where the spirits of just men are made perfect, where right and righteousness are not worsted, where there is no weariness, no worn-outness, no defeat in well- doing, a place where every soul is filled with a great zest for the service of God. No worn-out passions there, no loss of heart for the good and the gracious, no fainting and flagging in the presence of duty. Heaven is a place where the soul lives at its best, where there is no burden, only the joy of righteous- ness, where there are no crippled energies, no halt- ing endeavors. Heaven is a place where the soul experiences a wondrous buoyancy, where duty is life, and right is power, and hope is fruition. The Scripture again and again sets forth the freedom of the soul there — no fear, no dismay, no sorrow, no fretting of the spirit, no hunger, no thirst, no night. Remembering the things that have beset us here, how this great word about the free and abun- dant activity of Heaven grips and buoys the soul. " They shall serve him day and night in his temple." Sursum corda! 50 FEBRUARY NINETEEN §>toeet Wiotm of ©ID Read the Book of Ruth. THE Book of Ruth is very small — not more than three thousand words — but it is crowded with sentences that contain the sweetness of life and love. No wonder that a writer speaks of it as a " wonderful prose poem, sweet, artless and per- suasive." When Benjamin Franklin read it to a learned society of skeptics in Paris, they immediately proposed to print it! Listen to the music of these sweet words of old. " The Lord deal kindly with you as ye have dealt with the dead." How sorrow links hearts together. " Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave unto her." A turning-point of history. Read this ; then read Matthew's genealogy of Jesus — " And Boaz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David the King." " Whither thou goest, I will go ; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge." No wonder such devotion had its reward. " Her hap was to light on the portion of field belong- ing to Boaz." God was behind the hap. " Where hast thou gleaned to-day? " The memories of many of life's harvests are in these words. " 6 The Lord be with you.' And they answered him, * The Lord bless thee ! ' " What courtesy is like that we show one another in the Lord? "Blessed be the Lord which hath not left thee this day without a near kinsman." Down through the centuries these sweet words echoed until the true Kinsman and Redeemer of souls came. FEBRUARY TWENTY 51 ©pen ^)i0 OBpeg! " Jehovah, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see." II Kings 6:17. MANY of us need what Elisha's young man needed, the opening of eyes. " They seeing, see not," was our Lord's description of all such. It is quite possible for one to be looking, yet not to be seeing. Some one spoke incredulously to Turner about his pictures. " I never saw such sun- sets," he said. "Don't you wish you could?" was the artist's reply. Our world is " full of a number of things " which our eyes do not see. We need training in observation in order that we may see. The delights of a journey through the country up hill and down dale, how great they are. Yes, provided we can see. If our eyes are not open, a thousand beautiful things escape us. The different tints of blue in the sky, the deft balancing of the bird on the wing, the shy unknown flower by the road- side — alas ! if we have no eyes for such things. Lord, open our eyes to the beauty of the world we live in! Elisha's servant could see the horses and chariots that were against them, but he could not see the horses and chariots of fire that were for them. That is, we can see material values, but not spiritual forces. We can see the riches of Wall Street, but not the " unsearchable riches " of Christ. We have open eyes for the many wonderful things in men and books, but not for the " wondrous things " of God's law. Lord, open our eyes to spiritual things ! 52 FEBRUARY TWENTY-ONE TBtine Crue to tfte past " Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set." Proverbs 22:28. A MAN plowed a furrow around his land and set up here and there boundary stones to mark the extent of his property. In a coun- try where there were no surveyors, no public records, no line fences, the removal of a landmark might mean great social confusion, even social contention. In effect these ancient landmarks came in time to stand for the influence of the past, and it became a religious duty with men to regard the past with scrupulous care. The writer of Proverbs was think- ing not merely of the little heaps of stones set up in the desert to mark boundaries of property. He was thinking also of how the past has set up marks and boundaries for life, and of how we of the pres- ent ought to keep and use whatever is sacred in the past, and not destroy it or break it down. " I love it, I love it, And who shall dare To chide me for loving The old arm chair? " The Bible counsels men to regard the teachers and teachings of youth, to respect the aged, to venerate wholesome tradition, to treasure the memories of days gone by, to value the unearned gifts and graces of ancestry, to feel the pulse of history in the life of to-day. Happy is the home that cherishes the an- cient landmarks. FEBRUARY TWENTY-TWO 5S Ontotee O0e of tjje ISarometer " I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content." Philippians 4:11. I AM not sure that the barometer is as useful as many persons would have us believe. If the mercury in the little tube could but keep well at the top, prophesying good weather day by day, it would be the most useful of instruments. But because forsooth the mercury must sometimes go down, the barometer only seems to add to that tend- ency which is so common among us, to borrow trouble and to magnify the disagreeable things in life. A man looks at his barometer in the morn- ing, and observing how low the mercury is, he goes out with the expectation of a gray and heavy day. The truth is that we must learn to use the barometer wisely. After all the mercury in the tube is merely a sign of the weather. It does not create the weather. Least of all can it create the weather of the heart. The trouble comes with looking at the barometer too much. It gets us into the habit of expecting bad weather. If we are expecting the dis- agreeable it is almost sure to come. There is a way that some have of looking for trouble. They are quite certain to find it. To be sure, " some days must be dark and dreary." " Perpetual sunshine " would be a calamity. Do not blame the barometer for doing its duty. But do not consult it over-much. Do not regulate your life by the barometer. Trust in God all the day and all the way. 54 FEBRUARY TWENTY-THREE Scamping 2Dur Wiotk " It is required in stewards, that a man be found faith= fill." I Corinthians 4:2. WE are stewards of God, and this is the re- quirement of the office, " that a man be found faithful." This is the true spirit of service, to be faithful to one's work and to the Lord of the work and the worker. A busy man replied to the question as to what he had to be thankful for in this way — " I am thankful that I have an in- clination to work." "Blessed is the man who has found his work," said Carlyle. But there is some- thing more. Blessed is the man who, having found his work, is faithful in doing it. To be faithful means to do the small things as well as the large things. In " The Seven Lamps of Architecture " John Ruskin tells us that the spirit of workmanship is best shown in the way a man works in the dark places as well as in the open places. Fidelity is what a man does in the shadows under the cornices. Is he a true and careful workman there as well as in the sunlight? We have often looked at some strong and useful life and wondered about the source of its power. Usually such lives are faithful to the uttermost. God needs a multitude of stewards who will serve quietly and faithfully. Do your duty; do not idle, do not dawdle, do not evade. Mr. Spurgeon spoke of those who " scamp " their work. FEBRUARY TWENTY-FOUR 55 Cfte CimDUfee Spirit "And a little child shall lead them." Isaiah 11:6. WHEN the kingdom of God is fully come to the hearts of men, there will be a new era in this world — " a little child shall lead them." That is, the world peoples and the world forces shall then be controlled, not by weakness, but by the strength which comes from loving and obeying God. In other words, the childlike spirit will prevail in the places where otherwise selfishness, ambition and force are in control. When Christ came he renewed the charter of his kingdom in the childlike spirit. He took a child and set him in the midst of his disciples, and made him the type of his kingdom. He also laid down this principle, " Except ye become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." What does all this mean? It means just this, that life in the kingdom of God is made up of a number of child- like things, such as love, joy, peace, trust, meekness. It means that the kingdom of God stands not for force or fear, or blood or revenge, or resentment or hatred, or war — none of these things. For none of these things are childlike. " A little child " — the childlike spirit — " shall lead them." When nations, states, communities, families, churches, institutions, corporations, neighbors, individuals, learn the mean- ing of this, the peace of God shall be realized, and " the meek shall inherit the earth." 56 FEBRUARY TWENTY-FIVE Cfte jfttlp Spoken ftOorD " A word in due season, how good is it! " Proverbs 15:23. AND to this add that other even more beauti- ful description of the right word in the right place — " A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of silver." No careless art is this fine art of speech. With it we can make or mar, heal or hurt. No wonder the Psalmist prays, " Set a watch, Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips." We do not sufficiently realize what good we can do with our words, and also what harm. Now and then we learn that some word of ours spoken in due season has lived in the life of a soul through the years. How it cheers us to know this. But what of the word that was spoken out of season, the word that was lacking in love, the word that had bitterness in it? Who can say how deeply such a word has gone into some human breast, and what heartache it has produced? " The world is rank- ling from hasty speech." Speech should be made a means of grace like prayer. The man who speaks graciously and kindly is a treasure to his neighbors, and a delight to all who hear him. He makes life easier and better. There was a man in Exeter, Eng- land, of whom it was said that " he was in, the habit of dropping sentences that changed people's lives." FEBRUARY TWENTY-SIX » 57 Cfte faster attD 3 11 1 know mine own, and mine own know me." John 10:14. IF there be one of us who fails to find cheer in this good word of the Master, I am much sur- prised. Rather there is such a thrill here as the heart can scarcely miss. What a personal touch the Gospel has ! How profoundly individual the in- terest of Jesus is ! If we could imagine him coming into our home, or our place of business, or our •church, he would speak every name with perfect familiarity. " I know mine own." That is how personal his interest is — each name is upon his heart. Think too of how much this carries with it. If there is any concern of yours, any trouble, any burden, and you can hardly get along with it be- cause it is heavy and hard, why, I want you to know that your concern is the Master's also. He knows his sheep in that personal and intimate way. Do not imagine for one moment that you are ever for- gotten, or ever can be. All that interests you claims his interest too. Each of us has his own identity in the Lord's kingdom. None of us is ever lost to view. " The Master and I " — one may say this and think this all day long without presumption. It brings to the heart a sweet sense of intimacy like that which men feel when a dear, familiar song is sung, or when a message is spoken that calms the inward storm. 58 FEBRUARY TWENTY-SEVEN iReltgion Cftat Costs iQotinng " Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto Jehovah my God which cost me nothing." II Samuel 24:24. IN ordinary circumstances King David would have accepted a gift from Araunah the Jebusite, but he could not allow himself to use an altar that cost him nothing. He was right. Religion that costs nothing misses the spirit of sacrifice. The Gospel is free, but it is not cheap. God's invest- ment for us is very heavy, in order to open " the riches of his grace which he made to abound to- ward us." His love is costly. " God so loved the world that he gave." Christ's sacrifice is costly. " He emptied himself." " Though he was rich he became poor." Religion is also costly to the be- liever. Repentance is not cheap, it is dear. Faith is not cheap, it is expensive. Obedience is not cheap, it comes high. If religion did not call for a real investment, it would hardly be worth while. Re- ligion must cost us something'. There are many who have not learned this truth. They do not take religion seriously. They attend worship at their convenience. They give offerings if the weather per- mits. If religion interferes with their own pleasure or profit, alas for religion! If they need the Sab- bath for recreation or business, alas for the Sab- bath ! If the duties of discipleship grow heavy, they shift them to other shoulders. If the obligations of the Christian life require sacrifice, they evade them. They want religion without cost. FEBRUARY TWENTY-EIGHT 59 OBeatituDes (or Cfturcft S©emfiet0 " Blessed are they." Matthew 5:6. BLESSED is the man whose watch keeps church time as well as business time. Blessed is the man who is generous to his neighbor in all things except the " applica- tion." Blessed is the man whose calendar contains prayer- meeting night. Blessed is the man who is faithful on a committee. Blessed is the man who will not strain at a drizzle and swallow a downpour. Blessed is the man whose watch closes without a snap. Blessed is the man who loves the church with his pocket as well as with his lips. Blessed is the man who leaves the critical spirit on the sidewalk. Blessed is the man who is not afraid of spoiling the minister by a word of praise. Blessed is the man who has patience as well as piety. Blessed is the man who has grace enough to give up the end seat. 60 FEBRUARY TWENTY-NINE J^oto Ho0t ©trengtft IRetutns " They that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength." Isaiah 40:31. IT is a good word to read and meditate upon, for we all know what it means to feel strength leaving us. There are many things in this world that withdraw our strength. We need fre- quent renewals. And for this God's prophet has given us a heartening word. " They that wait for Jehovah." There are several ways of waiting. The most obvious is just to wait. When the Lord's ways seem dark and we cannot understand — then " wait patiently for Jehovah." In the dark hours when the light is so long in coming there is but one thing to say — " My soul waiteth in silence for God only." " In God have I put my ^rust ; I will not be afraid." There is also the waiting of obedience. " Commit thy way unto Jehovah." " Trust in Jehovah and do good." Use what strength you have for God, and he will renew your strength. The way of duty is the way of renewal. " Walk worthily " of the Lord, and it cannot be but that you will be " strengthened with all power." Wait upon the Lord also in prayer. Prayer girds the soul anew and makes it fit for the battle. Are you tempted to give up? Is the con- flict too great for you? Does your spirit fail within you ? Is your strength clean spent ? Then pray — " pray without ceasing ! " It is wonderful how lost strength returns in prayer. MARCH ONE 61 mest " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28. IT is inconceivable that any one can ever hear this sentence of Jesus without a thrill of the heart. It voices our need so deeply, it comprehends our longing so fully ! The history of this sentence be- longs to the heart. It is no academic, no scholastic formula. In Athens or Rome it would have been sniffed at as beneath the level of the high mentality of the Academy or the Porch. Nevertheless the shores of the little lake where Jesus stood and spoke this sentence to the heart have become a great whis- pering gallery to carry his message into all the world. For everywhere there are hearts that are hungry for rest. You will not mistake his meaning if you know him. He did not mean monastic calm, the beating of the body and mind into sullen sub- mission. He did not mean the quiet that comes from standing away from the stream of action, the rest of the indifferent spectator. He did not mean the rest of disassociation, of mental abstraction, of mere abstention. He did not mean any sort of en- forced or labored calm in the soul. The world has tried all these and found, them vain. What he of- fered to men was the rest of an uplifting, cleansing, joyous companionship. " Come unto ME, and I will give you rest." O heart, come home, home from all thy wanderings. Christ is home for the heart. Seek no farther. " Come unto me," 62 MARCH TWO Consecrating t&e Commonplace " Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." Judges 6:15. THE Bible takes pains to emphasize common life. What splendid uses God finds for the common- place. Saints are not made out of splashes of gold leaf and blue, but out of common human material caught up into the grandeur of God's king- dom. Therefore in the Old Testament we meet with four shepherds doing God's work, Abraham, Moses, David and Amos, and with such a one as Gideon, who was called from the threshing-floor, his family " the poorest in Manasseh." It is well to surround our re- ligion with " sweetness and light." But let us never forget that Christianity is a rugged faith. It was born in a manger. It came out from the common people. This rugged old faith clamors for the ozone of the open air. Think not to shut it up in art gal- leries and cloisters. It grows musty and dust-strewn if you seclude it in libraries. Christianity is no par- lor game. Let it out where it can work, amid the commonplace things of life, the common toil, the com- mon duty, the common sin. Beauty and art and architecture are noble gifts to bring to the Son of Man. But he desires first the " uncalculating en- thusiasm " of men, the initiative, the grasp, the en- terprise, learned in daily toil, together with those patient endeavors, those ordinary chivalries, those heats of moral passion, which are experienced in common life. MARCH THREE 63 ISuping up ©pportunitp " Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:16. REDEEMING the time ! Literally, buying up the opportunity. The market of life is crowded with opportunity, and we are to go into the market to buy it up, and use it for the Lord. How much unused opportunity there is. Often it is given to us freely, but at other times we must pay the price. No Christian, for example, will ever lack for opportunity for Christian work, if only he is willing to pay the price of opportunity. And what is the price? Often it is so slight a thing as attention. Opportunity is here staring us in the face, but if we have no interest, no alertness, we may not see it. The world is all gates and doors. Yet there are some who will travel a whole day and never discover an opening. Opportunity is often to be found in out-of-the-way places. Philip went out in the des- ert — a most unlikely place — yet even there he found an opportunity waiting to be bought up. " Behold, a man of Ethiopia reading the prophet Isaiah ! " Opportunity is not always set forth at- tractively like goods on a counter. Often the best is on the shelf. When one takes the trouble to buy up an oppor- tunity he really possesses it for himself. So many of our hours we never really redeem — never really buy them up for our own possession. 64 MARCH FOUR pleasant Surprises " There is nothing." I Kings 18:43. THERE are many disagreeable things in this world, but there are also many pleasant sur- prises. Six times the prophet's servant went up to the top of the mountain and saw nothing. He had ceased to expect anything. But the seventh time there came a pleasant surprise — " a cloud as small as a man's hand." What a bundle of sur- prises nature is. In the springtime it would seem that God is determined to awaken us from our dull- ness and our sluggishness, our coldness and our old- ness. He is challenging us now to plant our seed in the earth and see what nature will do. " O little bulb, uncouth, Ragged and rusty brown, Have you some dew of youth? Have you a crimson gown? Plant me and see What I shall be — God's fine surprise Before your eyes ! " Our trouble too often is that surprise has gone out of us. Why, I can actually take one of these flowers and break it in pieces and scatter it or cast it into the oven without thinking about it. That is how thoughtless and how lacking in wonder I am. MARCH FIVE 65 Cfie e©ii0ic of iQature " The time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle=dove is heard in our land." Song of Solomon 2:12. NATURE is full of music. There are har- monies everywhere, in the cricket's chirp, in the hum of the bees, in the whirring of the partridge, in the swish of the farmer's scythe, in the click of the cottage gate at night. There are words in our language even that undertake to repro- duce the music of nature, like buzz, and hum, and whirr, and whippoorwill. The first chirp of the robin or the bluebird in the spring — how quickly the door of the heart flies open at the sound! The frogs that sing in the old pond near the farmhouse — sometimes you can hear them still, although years have fled. " The music in my heart I bore Long after it was heard no more." Hold the sea-shell to the ear — that is old Ocean's music reduced to the compass and capacity of the human ear. And the echo ! What elusive, vanish- ing music is that I The Hebrews called it " the laughter of the voice." There is music in the air too. French scientists ascended in a balloon above the clouds at early morning and heard the sounds made by the air in process of heating, like a great IiEolian harp. And does not the sacred poet tell us that " the morning stars sang together"? 66 MARCH SIX 15le00eO T3t appetite " Give us this day our daily bread." Matthew 6:11. " Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it; But we hae meat and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit." WHILE we are asking God for our daily bread and are thanking him for his abund- ant daily answer to our petition, let us also thank him for appetite. How mysterious yet how beneficent is that economy of our nature which greets the gift of food with the gift of appetite. Day by day, year in and year out, the desire of nature returns to us, and we seek our food with eagerness and rejoicing. God gives food to the eater, but he also brings the eater with relish to his food. What is the fullest banqueting table with- out the desire to eat? If nature merely required us to eat to support life, but furnished no response and no relish of our own, eating would be a mere mechanical process shorn of divine grace and void of human delight. Daily we should go to our tables like slaves driven to a hated task. If God had not given us taste, if he had not mysteriously endowed us with physical relish, eating would have been the veriest humdrum and punishment of our existence. Blessed be appetite! MARCH SEVEN 67 C6e Inntt Mtt "The Kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:21. GOD is not content with the outward life alone. He desires to reign in the inner life, in the true realm of personality. Every man and woman of us is heavily endowed. We have unsearch- able riches, riches past finding out, that we are carrying about with us daily, not in the pockets of our garments, but in the pockets of the mind, in the pigeonholes of the soul. I have known men and women who had scarcely a dollar, little else than a sweet and gracious disposition, yet the world counted them rich. These hidden riches of the inner life often escape notice. They do not glitter over-much. They shine in quiet places. There is no glamour about them. One has a feeling that there is some unseen supply that keeps flowing like a spring. We have all seen these spectacles. We have all been im- pressed with the reality of this inner life. We have seen those who were left bare, stripped of outward pomp and circumstance, nevertheless something con- tinued to shine within. On such occasions we are aware of a certain majesty about life, a certain royal prestige and flavor. We have often suspected that kings and queens were living close to us, for we have heard, not the rustle of royal garments, we have seen no scepters and no thrones, but we have heard royal words spoken in tones that were ever so quiet and ever so real. 68 MARCH EIGHT aiorp in tfte Scorning " And the glory of Jehovah came into the house, by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east." Ezekiel 43 '.4. JOY cometh in the morning. Glory enters the house " by the way of the gate whose pros- pect is toward the east." There is a cer- tain charm about the word mornmg, a veritable witchery of language. The morning of the day, the morning of life ! " Morning hearts and morning faces," says Stevenson. We were all of us poorer without such a word. It links itself in our thought with life's freshness and vigor. It speaks of new beginnings, of strong initiative, of hopefulness, of those masterful abilities that men have in their souls against the steady stress of time, rejoicing " as a strong man to run his course." One speaks the word with a sort of caress — The Mornmg. To-day is a hard day, and the shadows are thick upon us. But in the morning things will be better. To-night how weary I am, but the morning shall find me fresh again. We go forth to our labors in the morning. We make our prayers in the morning. We set our hopes high in the morning. We sow our seed in the morning. We sing our best songs in the morning. The morning is God's new call to the soul, God's fresh invitation to grace, God's open pathway to the feet. " When morning gilds the skies," God comes anew to the soul, bringing gifts " with the dew on them." The gate whose prospect is toward the east, how full of God's glory it is! MARCH NINE 69 Life a&uttDant " I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." John 10:10. TO this day Christ's mission is the same — to give life. Are there any of us who are living • at a poor dying rate " ? The Master of men is here to give life to us abundantly. Life like that of the summer-time, when the flowers bloom, and the birds sing, and the brooks dance joyously, and the cattle browse in the rich meadows, and all things are glad. Oh, to have Jesus Christ bring full summer-time into my heart! Nathaniel Hawthorne tells a weird tale of a pro- fessor who brewed a strange elixir, and when some drops of the mysterious fluid fell upon a stunted plant that was about to die, the plant sprang into new and luxuriant life. The Word of Christ the Lord is like that strange elixir, for it has power to revive a drooping heart, to lift up a fallen soul, and to bring back a lost or broken life. The love of God in Christ can break the bondage of sinful habit. There is an old story of a castle whose gates could not be opened until the true Prince came and took down the horn that hung by the gate and sounded it clear and strong. One day after long waiting the Prince came in the early morning, and all the hills and valleys were soon reverberating with the winding of the horn. Then the gates of the castle opened! 70 MARCH TEN a Murmuring motlt " Do all things without murmurings and questionings." Philippians 2:14. IT is appalling to think how much murmuring there is among the people. It is almost a mur- muring world. It is not to be wondered at that the apostle Paul writes this sweeping text to the Philippian Christians — " Do all things without mur- murings." It would be a beautiful sight indeed, and in delightful contrast with the world's way, to see a company of Christian believers going about their duty without " murmurings and questionings." " Theirs not to reason why." How daringly com- prehensive the Scripture is — " All things." God knows our tendency to half-measures and petty in- dulgences. Murmuring is first on the tongue. The very word fits the tongue with its imitative sound. There are some whose tongues seem shaped for murmuring. At least they have so long yielded to this manner of utterance that their tongues roll off one complaint after another with entire ease. These murmuring tongues complain of the weather, of food, of the times, of life conditions, of their fellow-men, of the Church, of everything in heaven above and in the earth beneath. When the tongue has the murmur- ing habit, nothing less than the grace of God can cure it. For the trouble is that the sound of mur- muring on the tongue strikes in upon life itself. It becomes a habit of thought, an attitude of life. MARCH ELEVEN 71 Cfte Coucft Cftat 30 JQeeDeO " Let patience have its perfect work." James 1:4. EMPHASIZE perfect! This is as much as to say, let patience do its best for you, and the best that patience can do is something very good indeed. It is able to beautify and round out character — " that ye may be perfect and entire." May it not be that patience is one of those integral elements in life that has to do with everything else, so that when it is present in abundance, the life grows toward completion, " lacking in nothing " ? A man who has many virtues, but who lacks in pa- tience — what an anomaly such a one is ! As if an artist should paint a picture, putting in many touches of beauty, but should totally fail to put ex- pression into the picture. A mother said one day, " My son could draw your picture — he could do it in a few moments — but somehow he cannot put expression into his drawings." Omitting patience from one's character is like leaving out the expres- sion in a picture. We have seen souls whose patience was of such a quality that it seemed almost to be a foretoken of immortality, a note and promise of per- manency. Our trouble too often is that we do not let patience do its perfect work for us. We court patience to- day and bid it defiance to-morrow. We have patient periods, then we have other periods when patience is put to rout. 72 MARCH TWELVE 11 Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep=gate." Nehemiah 3:1. APPARENTLY Nehemiah's builders began to build the wall at the sheep-gate. This is not a meaningless circumstance. The sheep- gate was the place of sacrifice. All good building must begin at the sheep-gate. We shall never build the wall in a magnificent way until we learn to work over against the sheep-gate. The Bible says this in a thousand ways, over and over again. Haphaz- ard has no vogue in the Kingdom of God. Easy- going is not written on the walls of Zion. Religion is necessarily thoroughgoing. It makes strong claims upon us. It asks for the best we can give. The glory of religion is that it calls for sacri- fice. If it did not call for sacrifice, it would be a religion of half-measures. The Old Testament wor- shipper knew better than to bring a blemished sheep to the altar. He had been taught that God de- manded the best, and that he would spurn a gift that came lame to the altar. God is not content with our " spare cash " only — that which may or may not be left over, after every creature need is supplied. " Spare cash " does not represent sacri- fice. A mere fragment of time, a few shreds of tal- ent, an occasional spasm of devotion — are these not lame sheep coming to God's altars? If any of us have fallen upon easy ways of living the Christian life, let us begin to work at the sheepgate. MARCH THIRTEEN 73 Cfte Cintoalrteg of tfte Cross " The love of Christ constraineth us." II Corinthians 5:14. THE Age of Chivalry can never cease while Jesus Christ, the Prince among all Knights of the soul, rides his white horse of victory, with a name written on his vesture and on his thigh, " King of kings, and Lord of lords." Under his touch the knightly virtues of love and loyalty, chiv- alry and service, spring into being. Where he leads, courage and beauty grow, and the seeds of a thou- sand thoughts burst into flower. With such a Master to inspire them the eagerness of men passes into action. Philanthropies spring up, institutions of helpfulness arise, such as hospitals and missions, and the chivalries of the cross multiply. Who can remain selfish and self-satisfied when Christ becomes Master of the heart? When he comes knighthood is in flower. " I thought that Christ had given me birth To brother all the sons of earth." Being himself the true Great Heart, he proposes to make his disciples Great Hearts in sympathy and action. The " great adventurous touch " of the Prince's sword is upon us. Let us go forth and serve ! 74 MARCH FOURTEEN l£>e J^a0 JLeft JRoom " Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ." Colossians 1:24. TO " fill up on my part that which is lacking." Not that Christ has left any deficiency in his sufferings for the world, but that he has left room in his sufferings for his followers, who are to " fill up " the place reserved for them in the "afflictions of Christ." "To you it hath been granted in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer in his behalf." " That I may know him — and the fellowship of his suffer- ings." What a flash of light all this throws upon the labors and sorrows of a Christian. Duty seems hard and often the fascination of the Christian task wanes, and the joy of sacrifice disappears. But what if we realize that we are joined with Christ in sacrifice and suffering? What noble, uplifting companionship ! Think of this when you are under- going some severe trial or bearing some heavy bur- den. You are in " the fellowship of his sufferings." Even our least trials are thus lifted to a high plane. Is it not wonderful to think of, that Christ relates our sufferings to his own, allowing us to fill up the place that he left vacant for us? How sacred our difficulties and sorrows become in this light! MARCH FIFTEEN 75 JLitJing 6p Defeat " When I am weak, then am I strong." II Corinthians 12:10. DEFEAT is not necessarily a blind alley. Often it opens out into a better way. Men frequently need to know how weak they are, before they can gather strength. " My power is made perfect in weakness." Blessed are they who know the hidden beauty of failure. They who live in their successes only are not to be condemned, they are to be pitied. They cut themselves off from the other half of God's economy. God intends us to live by our defeats as well as by our successes. The knots of trees, the corrugations of the bark, mark the discipline of failure. Disease itself may be called failure. How often the body triumphs and gathers greater strength in its victory over disease. The crucifixion might be called the anti-climax, the failure of Jesus. But how glorious, how master- ful, the recovery in the resurrection! Our Lord was declared to be the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead. Strength came out of weakness. To know " how sublime a thing it is to suffer and be strong " — that is living by defeat, that is rising out of weakness into strength. Suf- fering has latent strength within it. We can suffer and be strong as the result of suffering. We can endure defeat so as to live by it in a better way. 76 MARCH SIXTEEN i&eligion of JRemnants " The residue (remnant) thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image." Isaiah 44:17 THE absurdity of idolatry is what the prophet is writing about. It is a good instance of biblical humor. See the picture. The idola- ter has hewn down a tree for the purpose of making an idol. But first he puts a part of the tree in the fire to warm himself. Then he bethinks himself of other things that can be done with parts of the tree — too bad to waste anything. Why not bake some bread? Why not roast some meat? For himself you see this is done — for his own appetite. I thought that he was making a god out of the tree! Yes, but he intends to hew as close to the line as possible. He intends to use every available inch of timber for himself, and to turn the remnant into a deity. This is the force of the prophet's satire — " the residue thereof he maketh a god." The ab- surdity, not to say the injustice, of it is very plain. But what about our own practice of this religion of remnants? Are there any who give God the rem- nant of time? Any who give him the pitiful rem- nant of their days? Any who give him the merest remnant of their substance? Are there any who think to satisfy every creature comfort, to indulge all selfish pleasure, to pursue every personal bent, leaving to God the poor residue of their lives? " Seek ye first his Kingdom and his righteousness." MARCH SEVENTEEN 77 Cftere 1$ Wioik to Do " My Father worketh even until now, and I work." John 5:17. AND why do we not all take this up and add, " And I also work "? For that is the spirit which the Lord would see in men. " The night cometh when no man can work," said he. Therefore " we must work the works of him that sent us, while it is day." What a mighty emphasis is thus laid upon the value of every day. Was ever a more disastrous thing to do than to " kill " time? They who do it fail to realize that they are breaking connection with the Father and the Son, whose work goes on forever. How can any child of God be con- tent to waste time, when he remembers how busy the Son of Man was when he was on earth? There is work to do to-day, and in the doing of it we take our places in a long and noble line of workers, that stretches from the Throne of God above to the Cross of Christ on Cavalry, and thence out into the wide world and on into the years. What a wide commu- nity of workers ! We may grow weary m our work, but let us never grow weary of our work. "' Blessed is the man who has found his work." Some one has furnished a companion morning prayer to the even- ing prayer of childhood. " Now I get me up to work, I pray the Lord I may not shirk." 78 MARCH EIGHTEEN Cfte KDeal ©ome " Except Jehovah build the house, they labor in vain that build it." Psalms 127:1. WHAT a wonderful place is the Home. Love will blossom there and bear beautiful fruit. Courtesy also will flourish, and kindness and chivalry. A few good books on the shelves will stimulate the intellect and refine the thought. Some pictures on the wall will lift the curtain of the mind and unfold new visions to the imagination. A musical instrument will give expression to the finer tastes of the soul, and will evoke here and there the growth of the fine arts. An atmosphere of rever- ence will be there, and the sound of prayer will be heard. The Good Book also will have its place. The very atmosphere will be charged, as if by elec- tricity, with that wholly supernatural, yet deeply human thing called Love. When a man at the end of his day's toil has gone back to his appointed dwelling-place, no matter how humble, he has come to the place where his soul should grow. At table, or beneath the evening light, with the faces of his loved ones close at hand, or a good friend with an open heart, or with a good book in hand, or with some enterprise of domestic joy to fashion, or some plan of neighborliness to consider, or some human need or service to meditate upon — amid such simple scenes of joy and contentment he prepares for Heaven. MARCH NINETEEN 79 J^ougeftoiO peace " Peace be to this house." Luke 10:5. WHETHER the peace of God can abide in the household depends much upon the grace and peace of each one, for the wisdom of the home rests with the individual. The enrichment of each member means the strengthening and beauti- fying of the household, for each has a duty, each has a responsibility. The whole fabric of the house is delicately adjusted. Its balance is easily destroyed. Each must fulfill his or her part. The man must furnish his own equation, what- ever it may be, affection, strength, wisdom, and withal a great dependableness of the masculine stock, a loyalty such as will last in bad weather, and a large and beautiful protectiveness and tenderness toward all that are in the house. The woman must bring all that she can, the sweet affection of her soul, the wonderful strength also of the feminine stock, domestic virtue and " childware care," if that be her j oyous privilege, and such grace as is woman's gift alone, with a mini- mum of fault-finding and a maximum of trust and praise. For the weakness of the man is that he loves to be praised, whilst the wonder of Nature is that she has made the woman capable of giving praise. Keep the romance of the home alive. Let Christ sanctify the marriage, and guide in building within four walls a true Kingdom of the Heart. MARCH TWENTY Cftp Spotfter " Then saith he to the disciple, Behold, thy mother! " John 19:27. 44 A N ounce of mother is worth a pound of /-\ clergy." Fine tribute was that which Im- manuel Kant, grave and profound philoso- pher, paid to his mother. " Often she led me out- side the city and showed me the works of God." Divine office indeed to show the works of God to the heart of a child! The world's finest thinking starts in the home, within the domain of motherhood. " To have lain on the hearth-rug and listened to one's mother reading aloud was a liberal education." The fine and sympathetic intelligence of a mother's mind — neither schools nor teachers can take its place. We can trace it, all of us, like a silken thread, in the best instincts we have. They said of David Livingstone that he had his mother's eyes. Even savages in the wilderness caught the light of them. " Love like unto a mother's love." Men use this phrase because all men know how deep and strong a mother's love is. In the life of Thomas Carlyle is preserved a splendid though homely picture of his Scotch mother in the chimney-corner, sharpening her pencil and toiling at the task of learning to write, that she might follow her gifted boy out into the world with the letters of a mother's hand. The fol- lowing power of a mother's love — how it protects, how it arms the souls of men. " Behold, thy mother ! " MARCH TWENTY-ONE 81 Cfte Cf)ilD in tfte J£>ome " My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother." Proverbs 1:8. THE child is an important personal equation in the home. He must be taught to furnish his quota of success and beauty. He must early learn obedience and long practise it. He must learn reverence for those who have lived longer than he, and he must know that a child's best virtue is often the virtue of silence. He must learn — God grant that he may ! — to love the home, and cherish everything that is precious in it for the long mem- ory of years. He must learn to think of the home as a place to which his footsteps gladly return, and from which they are slow to wander. And he must learn also that the lessons of the home, however simple they may seem as he grows wiser in his own knowledge, are not to be despised, but are to be carried out into life and built into its foundations and its superstructure. It is a foolish man indeed who despises the instruction of his youth. To thoughtful men it seems a wonderful thing that the simple lessons taught at the throne of a mother's knee have so often proved sufficient for the great things of life. All this goes to show the importance of the time when " the mind is wax to receive and marble to retain." A seed dropped into the quick soil of a youthful mind — who shall say to what it may grow ? 82 MARCH TWENTY-TWO letting tfte Copp " Thou shalt write them upon the door=posts of thy house, and upon thy gates." Deuteronomy 6:9. IN France in the Imperial Library is preserved a copy-book of Louis XIV, in which the young despot wrote six times on one page, " Hom- age belongs to kings : they may do whatsoever it pleases them to do." The copy that the family and society in general set for children is far-reach- ing in its effect. The whole question of early train- ing — do we not see with what fine tools it must do its work, in order that the soul may learn values? The family is the most important school in which the human being carries on his studies. In every hour the child is a learner, following his copy. If the copy be worldly the lesson sinks unconsciously into his soul, and he in turn is likely to become a little worldling. Parental conversation in the li- brary, under the evening lamp, or at table, will often set the child's habits like cement. The " tawdri- ness and ugliness " of worldly things becomes an in- fection. The father returning in the evening with his increasing talk of world values, and his anxious fingering of finance, with never a hint of higher things, the mother returning to her nest with no message for her birdlings except the empty echoes of card parties, and fancy-balls, and theater groups, with all the petty drivel of a paltry world of fashion — what sad copy is this to set before youthful minds ! MARCH TWENTY-THREE 83 ^O0t anO <£>um "Given to hospitality." Romans 12:13. THE guest also has his place in the home. For the Bible teaches us to be given to hospital- ity. It reminds us. that in harboring stran- gers we may entertain angels unawares. The home has its duty toward the guest. It may give him memories that he will never lose, and put a fragrance about his heart that will never pass away. The friendly greeting at the threshold, the chair of com-, fort by the evening lamp, the fellowship of the table, the shelter of the room and the rest of the bed throughout the night, and withal a beautiful friend- liness and openness of hearts, without ill remark or captious criticism — these are the high and noble hospitalities that make easier the lot of the stranger. And the guest himself has his obligations. When he enters the home, it is his to say, " Peace be to this house," and to do all that he can throughout his stay to fulfill this benediction. His message in the home should be one of joy and helpfulness.' Let him not bring any division or any spoiling of the ideals of the home. Let him try to make the atmosphere better, not worse. Let him depart with gratitude and with kindly thought, and let him indulge in no captious criticism. It is a holy relation indeed be- tween host and guest, and we may well ask God to bless our hospitalities, that the blessings of our homes may long abide with those who have broken bread with us. 84 MARCH TWENTY-FOUR iReltgton anO fanners " Be tenderly affectioned one to another." Romans 12:10. LET us remember with gratitude how Christ has brought light and joy into the home. How rich the world is in its true Christian homes ! A writer tells us that old Chinese hiero- glyphics express the idea of home by the words "cover " and w pig " — pig-sty. But Christ has taken the word home and poured new content into it. He has taught us more and more to love our own fireside, to treasure our children in the love of God, and to make our home, not a castle, surrounded with forbidding battlements, but rather a place of large friendliness, of tender affection, of broad sympa- thies, of gentle courtesies. A place, in short "To teach high thoughts and amiable worth And courtliness, and the desire of fame, And love of truth, and all that makes a man." Our Gospel is a faith that reaches into the words and manners of men. It is a faith to make the hus- band a strong man in his own household, and the wife a gracious reliance. It is a faith to give the children a true vision, and to cause them to rejoice with their parents. It is a faith to make the heart tender, and the answer of the lips soft, and the pressure of the hand warm, and the light of the eyes clear, and to take out of the soul all wintry cold, and make it warm in the love of God. MARCH TWENTY-FIVE 85 75tiw tjbe TSook " And they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law." Nehemiah 8:1. BRING the Book ! It would be well to take this little sentence and frame it as a motto and hang it on the walls of the house. It would be well for men of affairs to have this sentence meet them daily as they go forth to their toil in office, or shop, or store, or street, for wherever men do their work in the world there is need to bring the Book. In all circumstances and conditions of life let us learn to bring the Book. In our sorrows, when the tapers of hope burn low, there is no book that can comfort the heart like the Bible. In times of uncertainty and crisis there is no book like the Bible to clear the mind and strengthen the purpose. The Bible is preeminently the book of the heart. Its very frankness and severity with our sins and short- comings make it our best friend. Daily it calls us to higher levels of life, opens up for us new vistas of thought and hope, inspires us with the great ideals of the Kingdom of God. Not only does it lift men up; it brings God down. It tells us how to apply the measure of Eternity to the common affairs of life. No wonder that a brilliant writer has said that if all the books of the world were going up in a bon- fire, he would wish to rush in and save the Bible. 86 MARCH TWENTY-SIX Cfie i&ingOom ana patience " The tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus." Revelation 1:19. THE patience that is in Jesus ! What comfort it is to know that our daily practice of pa- tience, our endurance of trial, our steadfast- ness in Christian service, links us to " the tribula- tion and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus." Robert Louis Stevenson once declared that no man ever knows the heavens until he has slept in the beau- tiful starlight — " a la belle etoile." Let the fine starlight of the patience of Christ shine down into all our places of trial. Let us enlarge our idea of patience. It is no mere good fortune of tempera- ment, although one may well be thankful who is born with the gift of patience. It is no mere accident of comfortable circumstances, no mushroom growth of the moonlight of an easy life. Rather it is the strength that comes with the kingdom into the heart, the fixity and purpose that are born of a great love, the loyalty and steadfastness that grow with faith in the soul. " The kingdom and patience which are in Jesus ! " He has done a work that will never wear out. Time cannot spoil it. " The same yesterday and to-day, yea, and forever." If we link our destinies with him, we belong to a Kingdom that will not pass away, a Kingdom that breeds patience in the soul. The pa- tience of Jesus is enough to give us the courage of a thousand battlefields. MARCH TWENTY-SEVEN 87 ©pen COmOotos " Prove me now ... if I will not open you the windows of heaven." Malachi 3:10. OH, it makes the heart leap and the pulses beat fast to hear this word of our God. It is the full challenge of God to our faith. He is telling us how willing He is, and bidding us test His willingness. More expressive language could not be used. " I will open the windows " — fling them wide! No stinting, no withholding, no grudging. " I will pour you out a blessing." Not thimbles full, not buckets full, but poured-out floods. " Not room enough to receive it." Extravagant language, you say. But that is how anxious God is to have us understand. He would awaken our minds with this — " not room enough." God's stored-up blessings are so great that these shut-up lives of ours do not furnish room enough. O God, enlarge my heart! Make room for thy blessings here ! God is speak- ing here out of the fullness of his loving heart. If your heart is unwilling and your mood without ten- derness, all this will pass over your head. But if your heart is hungry within you, if you realize your need — then you will understand the greatness of this promise, and your soul will rejoice. Say it over again and be glad every day. " Open win- dows ! Open windows ! " 88 MARCH TWENTY-EIGHT 1^10 jface " The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." II Corinthians 4:6. THE New Testament pauses nowhere to give an exact description of our Lord's appearance. Yet it gives us many scenes and incidents where we seem truly to see his face. Put yourself in the place of the Samaritan woman at the well, hear- ing those heart-searching words about thirst and the water of life. Or think of Mary, sitting at his feet and learning the better part of life which none could take away. Think of the young man who came to see Jesus, and of how the Master looked upon him and loved him. What must his face have betokened in that moment of the discovery of a soul? The erring disciple who had denied his Lord, standing without in the court, saw his Master looking at him, and the look opened instantly the fountain of his tears. It was not rebuke that did this, but sym- pathy. How must he have looked when the disciples wanted to send the multitude away, or when he found the money-changers in the Temple, or when the dis- ciples clamored for first place? How must his face have beamed upon the widow with her mites, upon Mary with her broken alabaster box, upon the moth- ers bringing their babes to him to bless them, upon the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda, upon the man let down through the roof, upon Nicodemus coming to see him in the nighttime, upon Lazarus rising from the tomb? MARCH TWENTY-NINE 89 <5ptf0 plan "To them that love God all things work together for good." Romans 8:28, WE are so forward, so quick, so impatient. We cannot wait upon the issue. " Chil- dren and fools should never see anything until it is done." But grown souls, believing souls, should be willing to trust and wait. Let us believe that God is working on and out toward greater com- pletions. " All things work together ! " Then there is a plan. Life is not a haphazard, a hodge- podge of happenings. There is One who stands within the shadow, " keeping watch above his own." What if sorrow comes and leaves its black mark upon the soul? What if the sharpness of loss enters the soul? What if life's plans lie upon the earth like a broken vase? These are the hours when we need to trust — trust the wiser Mind, the deeper Love, the larger Plan. " All things work together." Our trouble is that we do not see the hidden connections, we do not real- ize the deeper relations, we do not comprehend the " working together." God's plan does not emerge fully on the moment. We can well afford to trust him — " he will bring it to pass." " It is God that worketh in you " — can you not believe that he is working "for good"? And let us be thankful for the sweep and comprehension of this truth. " All things," — that is very broad, very sweeping, very inclusive. The full issue will not come now. Greater revealings await us beyond. 90 MARCH THIRTY CI>ri0t'0 Completions " And in him ye are made full (complete)." Colossians 2:10. THIS is how wonderful a thing it is to be a Christian. This is the charter of our priv- ileges and rights. This is the continent of opportunity to which we are admitted. The full- ness of God in Christ ! How incomplete we are ! It is a weak faith, or a fragile will. It is an untrained imagination, or an undisciplined temper. It is an untrustworthy affection, or a broken loyalty. It is an unsteady purpose, or a fading vision. What a thing of fragments and patches human life must seem in the white light from above. How many gaps and chasms there are, how many broken links and empty places ! What a revelation this is then — Ye are complete in him — made full in Christ! He can make " God's greatness flow around our incom- pleteness/' Around our sin pardon flows. Around our failures sympathy flows. Around our meager- ness abundance flows. " I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more abund- antly" Christ is prepared to take our broken, shal- low, unfilled lives, and fill them to overflowing. " O Christ, he is the fountain, The deep, sweet well of love.'* The hymn-writer could have used another word, " The deep, sweet well of life! " Here then is such an unfolding of the Christian life as fills the mind with " wonder, love and praise." MARCH THIRTY-ONE 91 <©o0's §)l)are jffm " But make me thereof a little cake first." I Kings 17:13. ELIJAH'S method with the widow of Zarephath was to provide God's share in the beginning. " Make me a little cake first." And this not- withstanding the fact that there was only " a hand- ful of meal in a barrel," and " a little oil in a cruse." God calls for ventures of faith. But there is really no risk at all, for God's purpose is far-reaching. " The barrel of meal shall not waste, nor the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth." Trust God with the first things, and he will repay in the later things. The first ten cents of the dollar, the freshest por- tion of the time, the richest product of the talent — risk these with God, even if dollars are few and time and talent are needed elsewhere. Provide God's share first. " Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness." To this a promise is attached — " All these things shall be added." God is not content with remnants ; he asks for early portions. An old commentator states it quaintly : " Those that will deal with God must deal upon trust. And we may all venture to do so, for though they may have been losers for him, never any were losers by him in the end." Whosoever trusts God in the first things shall find all the way paved with blessings. " Make me a little cake first." 92 APRIL ONE 3 ISeauttfui MJorld " Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow." Matthew 6:28. rp 4 6 r 1 ^HE year's at the spring." And how good it is to walk about in our Father's world in days like these. It is a bright new era of time. Life is very sweet and gracious and the world opens its doors to us again and invites us to go out and in with glad steps. The old miracle has come once more. The earth is all green and soft and tender again. The world is not old but new now. A little while ago in the midst of my cares I was tired and worn. My task seemed heavy to me. But to-day it is a new world, and my weariness has passed away. Hear the birds sing! " The lark's on the wing." " Consider the lilies of the field ! " All ye busy, practical, wornout men, hear the call of God's beau- tiful world. Walk about in the spring-time. Every violet and spring-beauty and wake-robin and sprig of arbutus and every gorgeous lily of the field is piping up in the chorus — " How they grow ! how they grow I " " They toil not, neither do they spin." Yet look at their more than royal habiliments t " Shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith ? " In days like these let us walk about in our Father's world, and feel more deeply than before " the sensitiveness of the heart toward God." APRIL TWO 93 potoer from on ^igfi " Tarry ye . . . until ye be clothed with power from on high." Luke 24:49. POWER from on High is required to accomplish the deep things that the world stands in need of. We can change the manners of men by training, but we cannot regenerate men. We can often persuade men to give up their sinful habits, but we cannot purge men of their sins. We can help men to pick up the broken pieces of their lives and put them together, but we cannot make them whole. We can make things looks better, we can ac- complish reform, but we cannot create new lives. For all these deep needs of the world there must be power from on High. You wonder that Jesus said, " Tarry for it ! " We must tarry because God must know that we are anxious for it. We must tarry for it because it comes to the waiting soul, the receptive heart. If we understand this " Tarry ye," we have found a great secret. The power is ready. Are we ready? Are we waiting for it? Are we longing for it? Are we asking for it? This is what it means to tarry. How noiselessly yet how surely the Power comes. There is a new pressure of the hand, a new light in the eye, a new tenderness in the voice, a deeper feeling in the heart. Worship is sweeter. Prayer is a truer experience. Com- munion is a more tender reality. The tasks of the Kingdom are easier. 94 APRIL THREE Cfte iftisen Life " If then ye were raised together with Christ." Colossians 3:1. WHAT are the characteristics and assets of the Risen Life? The Risen Life is an up- ward tending life. " Seek the things that are above." The resurrection gives life a new stamp, a new definition, a new direction. Christ's open tomb means for us that life has a new era, a new pathway, a new existence set before it. We are children now of a glorious liberty. Therefore seek those things that are above. We are like Wordsworth's lark, that nested on the earth, but had the freedom of the upper air. Life has room since Christ arose — room above. The Risen Life is a life that has its greater values above. " Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Not only seek the things that are above, but set your mind on them — value them. Follow with your heart the di- rection which Christ has given your life by His resur- rection and His ascension. Throw out the roots of your life above. Do you see what this means? It means that we are to be deep-rooted in the things of God. Oh, the rich assets of a life that is deep- rooted in the " unsearchable riches of Christ." Is there anything more about the Risen Life? Yes, there is this — and it is a very great thing — " Your life is hid with Christ in God." APRIL FOUR 95 Cfce pioneer ** He went out, not knowing whither he went." Hebrews 11:8. LET us thank God for the rude plow and the woodman's ax and the flatboat on the river, for the spinning-wheel and the loom, and the log cabin in the clearing, and the plain school-house at the cross-roads, and the white church with the green blinds on the hillside — for such as these were the simple tools with which our forefathers did their enduring work. Nature's wealth had to be wrung from the soil, from the forests, from the rivers, from the mines. The nation was not built by aristocrats, but by toilers, men of the soil, men of the wilderness trail. The first chapters in our nation's history are chapters of pioneer struggle. Men who were " broad-backed and brown-handed, with empires in their brains," wrought with ax and plow and rifle, and most of all with the vision of their own hearts, to win a continent and to make it blossom like the rose. Simplicity was the order of the day. We have reason to thank God that our fathers and mothers for the most part were men and women of common life. " The common growth of mother earthy Her simplest mirth and tears." Very deep indeed is our indebtedness to the sturdy men and strong women whose lives were lived in the hand-to-hand struggle of pioneer life. 96 APRIL FIVE fyau JFattft " And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in Gad." Mark 11:22. WHEN the disciples were perplexed about the withered fig-tree, the Master said to them — " Have faith in God." For all our per- plexities his counsel is still the same. " Have faith in God " when the way is dark. There is not a hard place, not a pitfall, that he does not know about, and he knows our strength and our weakness altogether. We are traveling no untrod pathway, for our Lord has gone before. " Have faith in God " when great sorrows come. Our Lord has a special concern for those who pass through deep waters. " I will be with thee." He will not leave us alone or comfortless. He will send the Com- forter. When the need is very great, God is very near. " God is our refuge and strength, a present help in time of trouble." When the heart is sore, he would have us lean hard upon him. " Have faith in God " in the hour of great change and crisis. Such times come in almost every life. Old things pass away, and new times and new conditions take their place. The foundations are shaken; the plans of a lifetime lie shattered. In such a time remem- ber that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. Through all life's changes, " Have faith in God." APRIL SIX 97 Demas " Demas forsook me, having loved this present world." II Timothy 4:10. THERE are certain names in Holy Scripture that stand out in melancholy and startling prominence, pointing the moral of an oft-re- peated tale. They are names of men who were rec- reant to their trust. They were called to high privilege, but they fell from their high estate. In the Old Testament we remember Esau, who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and Samson who lost his inner light, and Saul who sinned against the higher knowledge, and Absalom who followed the lure of ambition to his ruin. In the New Testament we remember Ananias and Sapphira who lied to the Holy Spirit, and Felix who was terrified but re- pented not, and Agrippa who was almost persuaded, and Gallio who " cared for none of these things," and Judas who sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver. And there is also Demas, of whom Paul wrote, " Demas forsook me, having loved this present world." To him apparently was given a large op- portunity in the Gospel, and an exalted privilege. But Demas was not faithful to his trust. The love of this present world possessed him as a passion and he turned his back upon the apostle in his time of need. It is a sorrowful record to make of a man, " Demas forsook me." To forsake a noble cause and a true friend is one of the direst tragedies of life. 98 APRIL SEVEN Cfte aiJot&erljooD of implicitp " The simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ." II Corinthians 11:3. ET us live simply and cherish simple ways and j thoughts. Let us keep the simplicity of the home, magnifying such domestic virtues as love and trust and kindly disposition. Let us keep the simplicity of friendship, refusing to permit it to be clouded by sophistication and artificiality, or to be debased by mere pleasantry and compliment, or to be easily overturned by advance winds of criti- cism and rumor. Let us practise the great sim- plicities among our fellow-men — such as* rugged honor and honesty, and the old-fashioned virtues of industry, economy, and personal purity, and a rigid sense of righteousness in private and public affairs. Let us keep the simplicity of religion, that nothing may cloud the fact of God over us and in us, that reverence such as unspoiled children have for their parents may fill our hearts, that prayer may go out naturally and freely to the Heavenly Father, and that the love and discipleship of Jesus may voice the loyal attachment of twice-born men and women. Let us prize the simple virtues and homely piety of those who have grown spiritual under the touch of the Spirit. Jesus had time to think of God, and time also to think of lilies and birds. He taught men not to despise the world, but to live spiritually and simply in the world, and to value a gentle spirit, with simple speech, and sincere feel- ings. 102 APRIL ELEVEN a J0eto ftOorld " Behold, I make all things new." Revelation 21:5. THE world is old, but Christ is making it new. There are so many who forget this. The theologian talks about this sin-cursed world. The man of many affairs talks about this weary world. The pessimist talks about this worn-out world. But Jesus Christ talks of birds singing and flowers blooming and souls living a true life. This is the difference between our Master and other masters. He knew all about the curse; nevertheless he knew that there was a Way. He was not dumb to the confused and jangling voices of sin and sorrow and pain. Nevertheless he knew that there was a Father of Lights. He knew that oftentimes the world seems to men old and worn and troubled, but he knew in reality that the world is young. You do not find Jesus Christ talking about things growing old. You find him thinking and speaking of things growing young again. Friend, you have been dwell- ing too much upon your problems. You have not followed your Master in his glad way of sacrifice and service. It is so that the world has grown old to you. If you are weary of men and affairs, if the face of humanity looks haggard and the problems are darker each day — " Come away with me," says Jesus, " and I will make all things new for you." APRIL TWELVE 103 iQeto Jtigftt " Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Psalms 119:18. IT is noticeable that the great souls who have left their spiritual messages for us in the Bible are not in despair about knowing the truth. The Psalmist's cry is — " Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things." The apostle Paul echoes the cry — " Having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling." Often the opening of eyes comes sud- denly and leaves a grateful memory. It is like the opening of a window-blind — when the room is flooded with light. Luther tells his experience with one of the cardinal doctrines. He was listening to a fellow-monk reciting the creed — " I believe in the forgiveness of sins." Suddenly the great truth flashed out before him in a new light. " It was as if I had found the door of Paradise thrown wide open." Our danger is that truth may become familiar and humdrum. Because we look into the face of truth every day, it grows commonplace and ordinary. We need the opening of eyes to see " wondrous things." Eye hath not seen nor ear heard " the things prepared." It is a good day when we look again at an old truth and cry out in j oy, " I never saw it before in that light." N' 104 APRIL THIRTEEN fyt Is able " Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." Ephesians 3:20. <