ood, your judgment get warped and twisted, and your will grow either
wabbly or stubborn. This second thing must be put in the daily round, and
kept in. It helps to hold you steady to the first thing.

Then the third is the _purpose_ to be true to whatever the Master tells
you, to be true to Himself; never to fail _Him_. You may flinch within
your feelings. You probably will. Yet you need never flinch in action.
Follow the beckoning Figure just ahead in the road, regardless of thorny
bush or cutting knife. Keep your spirit sweet, your tongue gentle and
slow, your touch soft and even, your purpose as inflexible as wrought
steel, or as granite, as unmovable as the North Star. That's the third
thing, the purpose.

And the three make the three-fold cord with which to tie you fast and hard
to the Lone Man ahead. He is less alone as we follow close up. The three
together help you understand the meaning of _obedience_. The decision is
the beginning of obedience; the habit teaches you _what_ you are to obey
and gives you strength to do it; the purpose is the actual obedience in
daily round, the holding true to what He has told you.

Years ago, a young Jewess, of a wealthy family, that stood high in the
Jewry of New York, heard the call of the despised Nazarene. It came to her
with great, gentle power, and she decided that she must follow. Her father
was very angry, and threatened disinheritance if she so disgraced the
family. But she remained quietly, gently, inflexibly, true to her
decision. At last the father planned a social occasion at the home to
which large numbers were invited. And he said to his daughter, "You must
sing at this reception, and make this your disavowal of the Christian
faith." And she quietly said, "Father, I will sing."

The evening came, the parlours were filled, the time came for her to sing,
and all listened eagerly, for they knew the beauty of her voice. With her
heart in both eyes and voice, she began singing:

"Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee;
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou, from hence, my all shalt be.

Perish every fond ambition,
All I've sought, and hoped, and known:
Yet how rich is my condition!
God and heaven are all my own."

And she passed out into the night of disinheritance on earth, "into an
inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." This
was her decision. She had seen _His face!_ All