that would only bring
discouragement and utter failure; but He will come and copy Himself in us.
If Christ lives in me, I am another Christ. I am not like Him, but I have
the same mind. The very Christ is in me. This is the foundation of
Christian holiness and Divine healing. Christ is developing a perfect life
within us. Some say man can never be perfect. "It is not in man that
walketh to direct his steps." We are all a lot of failures. This is true,
but we should go further. We must take God's provision for our failure and
rise above it through His grace. We must take Jesus as a substitute for
our miserable self. We must give up the good as well as the bad and take
Him instead. It is hard for us to learn that the very good must go, but we
must have Divine impulses instead of even our best attainments.

MAY 17.

"To him that overcometh, will I give" (Rev. ii. 17).

A precious secret of Christian life is to have Jesus dwelling within the
heart and conquering things that we never could overcome. It is the only
secret of power in your life and mine, beloved. Men cannot understand it,
nor will the world believe it; but it is true, that God will come to dwell
within us, and be the power, and the purity, and the victory, and the joy
of our life. It is no longer now, "What is the best that I can do?" but
the question is, "What is the best that Christ can do?" It enables us to
say, with Paul, in that beautiful passage in Philippians, "I know both how
to be abased, and I know how to abound, everywhere and in all things, I am
instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer
need. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me."

With this knowledge I go forth to meet my testings, and the secret stands
me good. It keeps me pure and sweet, as I could never keep myself. Christ
has met the adversary and defeated him for me. Thanks be unto God who
giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ.

MAY 18.

"For ye are dead" (Col. iii. 3).

Now, this definite, absolute and final putting off of ourselves in an act
of death, is something we cannot do ourselves. It is not self-mortifying,
but it is dying with Christ. There is nothing can do it but the Cross of
Christ and the Spirit of God. The church is full of half dead people who
have been trying, like poor Nero, to slay themselves for years, and have
not had the courage to strike the fatal blow. Oh, if they would just put
thems