frail humanity, to stay
The pressure and the jostle that alway
Are ready to disturb, what'er we do,
And mar the work our hands would carry through,
None more than this environs us each day
With kindly wardenship--'Therefore, I say,
Take no thought for the morrow.' Yet we pay
The wisdom scanty heed, and impotent
To bear the burden of the imperious Now,
Assume, the future's exigence unsent.
God grants no overplus of power: 'tis shed
Like morning manna. Yet we dare to bow
And ask, 'Give us to-day our _morrow's_ bread.'"

There is a story of shipwreck which yields an illustration that comes
in just here. Crew and passengers had to leave the broken vessel and
take to the boats. The sea was rough, and great care in rowing and
steering was necessary in order to guard the heavily-laden boats, not
from the ordinary waves, which they rode over easily, but from the
great cross-seas. Night was approaching, and the hearts of all sank as
they asked what they should do in the darkness when they would no
longer be able to see these terrible waves. To their great joy,
however, when it grew dark they discovered that they were in
phosphorescent waters and that each dangerous wave rolled up crested
with light which made it as clearly visible as if it were mid-day.

So it is that life's dreaded experiences, when we meet them, carry in
themselves the light which takes away the peril and the terror. The
night of sorrow comes with its own lamp of comfort. The hour of
weakness brings its own secret of strength. By the brink of the bitter
fountain itself grows the tree whose branch will heal the waters. The
wilderness with its hunger and no harvest has daily manna. In dark
Gethsemane, where the load is more than mortal heart can bear, an angel
appears, ministering strength that gives victory. When we come to the
hard, rough, steep path we find iron for shoes. The iron will be in
the very hills over which we shall have to climb.

So we see that the matter of shoes is very important. We are pilgrims
here and we cannot walk barefoot on this world's rugged roads. Are our
feet shod for the journey?

"How can I get shoes, and where?" one asks. Do you remember about
Christ's feet, that they were pierced with nails? Why was it? That we
might have shoes to wear on our feet, and that they might not be cut
and torn on the way.

Christ's dear feet were wounded and sore with long journeys over thorns
and