lding in is
gone; the husks are opened wide, the seeds can shed themselves
unhindered. Again and again has a breaking come:--the seed broke to
let go the shoot--the leaf-bud broke to let go the leaf, and the
flower-bud to let go the flower--but all to no practical avail, if
there is a holding back now. "Love is the fulfilling of the law," and
sacrifice is the very life-breath of love. May God shew us every
witholding thread of self that needs breaking still, and may His own
touch shrivel it into death.

See how this bit of oat-grass is emptying itself out. Look at the
wide-openness with which the seed-sheaths loose all that they have to
yield, and then the patient content with which they fold their
hands--the content of finished work. "She hath done what she could."
Oh, the depth of rest that falls on the soul when the voice of the
Beloved speaks those words! Will they be said to us?

The seed-vessel hopes for nothing again: it seeks only the chance of
shedding itself: its purpose is fulfilled when the wind shakes forth
the last seed, and the flower-stalk is beaten low by the autumn
storms. It not only spends, but is "spent out" (R. V.) at last. It is
through Christ's poverty that we are rich--"as poor" in their turn
"yet making many rich" is the mark of those who follow His steps.

Are we following His steps; are we? How the dark places of the earth
are crying out for all the powers of giving and living and loving
that are locked up in hearts at home! How the waste places are
pleading dumbly for the treasure that lies there in abundance, stored
as it were in the seedvessels of God's garden that have not been
broken, not emptied for His world, not freed for His use.

Shall we not free it all gladly.--It is not grudgingly or of
necessity that the little caskets break up and scatter the seed, but
with the cheerful giving that God loves. Have you ever noticed how
often the emptied calyx grows into a diadem, and they stand crowned
for their ministry as if they gloried in their power to give as the
time draws near?

Even here in measure the faithfulness unto death and the crown of
life go together: even here, if we suffer, we shall also reign with
Him.

It is when the sun goes out from our horizon to light up the
dayspring in far-away lands, that the glory of the day comes on: it
is in the autumn, when the harvest is gathered and the fruit is
stored for the use of man, that the glow of red and gold touches and
trans