is brother. May it not suggest a high and
glorious place that each of us may occupy toward all whom we meet, instead
of God?

What a dignity and glory it would give our lives, could we uniformly
realize this high calling! How it would lead us to act toward our
fellow-men! God can always be depended upon. God is without variableness
or shadow of turning. God's word is unchangeable, and we can trust Him
without reserve or question. Oh, that we might so live that men can trust
us, even as God!

Again, God has no needs or wants to be supplied. He is always giving.
"Rich unto all that call upon Him." The glory of His nature is love,
unselfish love, and beneficence toward all His creatures. The Divine life
is a self-forgetting life, a life that has nothing to do but love and
bless.

Let us so live, representing our Master here, while He represents us
before the Throne on high.

JANUARY 14.

"Unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. iv. 13).

God loves us so well that He will not suffer us to take less than His
highest will. Some day we shall bless our faithful teacher, who kept the
standard inflexibly rigid, and then gave us the strength and grace to
reach it, and would not excuse us until we had accomplished all His
glorious will.

Let us be inexorable with ourselves. Let us mean exactly what God means,
and have no discounts upon His promises or commandments. Let us keep the
standard up, and never rest until we reach it. "Let God be true and every
man a liar." If we fail a hundred times don't let us accommodate God's
ideal to our realization, but like the brave ensign who stood in front of
his company waving the banner, and when the soldiers called him back he
only waved it higher, and cried, "Don't bring the standard back to the
regiment, but bring the regiment up to the colors."

Forward, forward, leave the past behind thee,
Reaching forth unto the things before;
All the Land of Promise lies before thee,
God has greater blessings yet in store.

JANUARY 15.

"As ye have received Christ Jesus so walk in Him" (Col. ii. 6).

It is much easier to keep the fire burning than to rekindle it after it
has gone out. Let us abide in Him. Let us not have to remove the cinders
and ashes from our hearthstones every day and kindle a new flame; but let
us keep it burning and never let it expire. Among the ancient Greeks the
sacred fire was never allowed to go out; so, in a highe