l that emerges
from the water without a single drop remaining upon its burnished wing, or
as the harp string, which may be struck by a rude or clumsy hand and gives
forth a discordant sound, not from any defect of the harp, but because of
the hand that touches it. But let the Master hand play upon it, and it is
a chord of melody and a note of exquisite delight.

"In nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to you an evident token
of salvation and that of God."

SEPTEMBER 13.

"Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you" (I.
Peter xii. 16).

Most persons after a step of faith are looking for sunny skies and
unruffled seas, and when they meet a storm and tempest they are filled
with astonishment and perplexity. But this is just what we must expect to
meet if we have received anything of the Lord. The best token of His
presence is the adversary's defiance, and the more real our blessing, the
more certainly it will be challenged. It is a good thing to go out looking
for the worst, and if it comes we are not surprised; while if our path be
smooth and our way be unopposed, it is all the more delightful, because it
comes as a glad surprise.

But let us quite understand what we mean by temptation. You, especially,
who have stepped out with the assurance that you have died to self and
sin, may be greatly amazed to find yourself assailed with a tempest of
thoughts and feelings that seem to come wholly from within and you will be
impelled to say, "Why, I thought I was dead, but I seem to be alive."
This, beloved, is the time to remember that temptation, the instigation,
is not sin, but only of the evil one.

SEPTEMBER 14.

"For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded;
therefore, have I set my face like a flint, and I know I shall not be
ashamed" (Isa. l. 7).

This is the language of trust and victory, and it was through this faith,
as we are told in a passage in Hebrews, that in His last agony, "Jesus,
for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the
shame." His life was a life of faith, His death was a victory of faith,
His resurrection was a triumph of faith, His mediatorial reign is all one
long victory of faith, "From henceforth expecting till all His enemies be
made His footstool."

And so, for us He has become the pattern of faith, and in every situation
of difficulty, temptation and distress has gone before us waving th