owers of earth and hell,
His sovereign sceptre own.

APRIL 11.

"Commit thy way unto the Lord" (Ps. xxxvii. 5).

Seldom have we heard a better definition of faith than was given once in
one of our meetings by a dear old colored woman, as she answered the
question of a young man how to take the Lord for needed help.

In her characteristic way, pointing her finger toward him, she said with
great emphasis: "You've just got to believe that He's done it, and it's
done." The great danger with most of us is, that after we ask Him to do
it, we do not believe that it's done, but we keep on helping Him, and
getting others to help Him; superintending God and waiting to see how He
is going to do it.

Faith adds its amen to God's yea, and then takes its hands off, and leaves
God to finish His work. Its language is, "Commit thy way unto the Lord,
trust also in Him; and He worketh."

Lord, I give up the struggle,
To Thee commit my way,
I trust Thy word forever,
And settle it all to-day.

APRIL 12.

"They were as it were, complainers" (Num. xi. 1).

There is a very remarkable phrase in the book of Numbers, in the account
of the murmuring of the children of Israel in the wilderness. It reads
like this: "When the people, as it were, murmured." Like most marginal
readings it is better than the text, and a great world of suggestive truth
lies back of that little sentence.

In the distance we may see many a vivid picture rise before our
imagination of people who do not dare to sin openly and unequivocally, but
manage to do it "as it were" only. They do not lie straight, but they
evade or equivocate, or imply enough falsehood to escape a real conviction
of conscience. They do not openly accuse God of unkindness or
unfaithfulness, but they strike at Him through somebody else. They find
fault with circumstances and people and things that God has permitted to
come into their lives, and, "As it were," murmur. They do not perhaps go
any farther. They feel like doing it if they dared to "charge God
foolishly."

These things were written for our warning.

APRIL 13.

"Rejoice evermore" (I. Thess. v. 16).

Do not lose your joy whatever else you lose. Keep the spirit of spring.
"Rejoice evermore," and "Again I say, rejoice."

The loss of Canaan began in the spirit of murmurings, "When the people, as
it were, murmured, it displeased the Lord." The first break in their
fellowship, the first falte