annot take it away! It is brightest in the hour of
trial; it lights up the final valley-gloom. "Mark the perfect man, and
behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." Yes! how often is
the believer's deathbed like the deep calm repose of a summer-evening's
sky, when all nature is hushed to rest; the departing soul, like the
vanishing sun, peacefully disappearing only to shine in another and
brighter hemisphere! "I seem," said Simeon on his deathbed, "to have
nothing to do but to wait: there is now nothing but _peace_, the
_sweetest peace_."

Believer! do you know this peace which passeth understanding? Is it
"keeping (literally, '_garrisoning_ as in a citadel') your heart?" Have
you learnt the blessedness of waking up, morning after morning, and
feeling, "I am at peace with my God;" of beholding by faith the true
Aaron--the great High Priest--coming forth from "the holiest of all" to
"bless His people with peace?" Waves of trouble may be murmuring around
you, but they cannot touch you; you are in the rock-crevice athwart
which the fiercest tornado sweeps by. Oh! leave not the making up of
your peace with God to a dying hour! It will be a hard thing to smooth
the death-pillow, if peace be left unsought till then. Make sure of it
_now_. He, the true Melchisedec, is willing _now_ to come forth to meet
you with bread and wine--emblems of peaceful gospel blessings. All the
"words of Jesus" are so many rills contributing to make your peace flow
as a river;--"These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might
have peace."

"I WILL HEAR WHAT GOD THE LORD WILL SPEAK, FOR HE WILL SPEAK PEACE
UNTO HIS PEOPLE AND TO HIS SAINTS."

20TH DAY.

"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--

"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth."--Matt. xxviii.
18.

The Supreme Investiture.

What an empire is this! Heaven and earth--the Church militant--the
Church triumphant--angels and archangels--saints and seraphs. At His
mandate the billows were hushed--demons crouched in terror--the grave
yielded its prey! "Upon his head are many crowns." He is made "head over
_all things_ to His Church." Yes! over _all things_, from the minutest
to the mightiest. He holds the stars in His right hand--He walks in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks, feeding every candlestick with
the oil of His grace, and preserving every star in its spiritual orbit.
The prince of Darkness has "a power,"