istians who make little show externally,
but their growth is chiefly underground--out of sight, in the depth of God.
These are the men and women that God uses for the foundation of things,
and for the pavements of that city of God which will stand when all
earthly things have crumbled into ruin and dissolved into oblivion.

Deeper, deeper let the living waters flow;
Blessed Holy Spirit! River of Salvation!
All Thy fulness let me know.

APRIL 16.

"Quit you like men" (I. Cor. xvi. 13).

Be brave. Cowards always get hurt. Brave men generally come out unharmed.
Jeremiah was a hero. He shrank from nothing. He faced his king and
countrymen with dauntless bravery, and the result was he suffered no harm,
but came through the siege of Jerusalem without a hair being injured.
Zedekiah, the cowardly king, was always afraid to obey God and be true,
and the result was that he at last met the most cruel punishment that was
ever inflicted on human heart.

The men and women that stand from the beginning true to their convictions
have the fewest tests. When God gives to you a good trial, if you can
stand the strain, He is not always repeating it. When Abraham offered up
his son Isaac at Mount Moriah, it was a final testing for the rest of his
life. Do not let Satan see that you are afraid of him, for he will pursue
to the death if he thinks that he has a chance of getting you.

Be true, be true,
Whether friends be false or few,
Whatsoe'er betide, ever at His side,
Let Him always find you true.

APRIL 17.

"He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city" (Prov.
xvi. 32).

Temperance is true self-government. It involves the grace of self-denial
and the spirit of a sound mind. It is that poise of spirit that holds us
quiet, self-possessed, recollected, deliberate, and subject ever to the
voice of God and the conviction of duty in every step we take. Many
persons have not that poise and recollected spirit. They are drifting at
the impulse of their own impressions, moods, the influence of others, or
the circumstances around them. No desire should ever control us. No
purpose, however right, should have such mastery over us that we are not
perfectly free. The pure affection may be an inordinate affection. Our
work itself may be a selfish passion. That thing that we began to do
because it was God's will, we may cling to and persist in ultimately,
because it is our own will. Lord, give u