s the spirit ever controlled by
Thy Spirit and will, and the eye that looks to Thee every moment as the
eyes of a servant to the hands of her mistress. So shall Thy service be
our perfect freedom, and our subjection divinest liberty.

APRIL 18.

"They shall mount up with wings" (Isa. xl. 31).

"They shall mount up with wings as eagles," is God's preliminary; for the
next promise is, "They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and
not faint." Hours of holy exultation are necessary for hours of patient
plodding, waiting and working. Nature has its springs, and so has grace.

Let us rejoice in the Lord evermore, and again we say, rejoice. And let us
take Him to be our continual joy, whose heart is a fountain of
blessedness, and who is anointed with the oil of gladness above His
fellows. We must not be disappointed if the tides are not always equally
high. Even at low tide the ocean is just as full. Human nature could not
stand perpetual excitement, even of a happy kind, and God often rests in
His love. Let us live as self-unconsciously as possible, filling up each
moment with faithful service, and trusting Him to stir the springs at His
will, and as we go on in faithful service we shall hear, again and again,
His glad whisper: "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into
the joy of thy Lord."

APRIL 19.

"Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him" (Ps. xxxvii. 7).

It is a very suggestive thought that it is in the Gospel of Mark, which is
the Gospel of service, we hear the Master saying to His disciples, "Come
ye apart into a desert place, and rest awhile." God wants rested workers.
There is an energy that may be tireless and ceaseless, and yet still as
the ocean's depth, with the peace of God, which passes all understanding.
The two deepest secrets of rest are, first, to be in harmony with the will
of God, and, secondly, to trust. "Great peace have they that love Thy
law," expresses the first. "Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind
is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee," describes the second.
There is a good deal in learning to "stay." Sometimes we forget that it
literally means to stop. It is a great blessing even to stop all thought,
and this is frequently the only way to answer the devil's whirlwind of
irritating questions and thoughts, to be absolutely still and refuse to
even think, and meet his evil voice with a simple and everlasting "No!" If
we wil