to believe for another than for your own petty
self. Try the effect of praying for the world, for definite things, for
difficult things, for glorious things, for things that will honor Christ
and save mankind, and after you have received a few wonderful answers to
prayer in this direction, see if you won't feel stronger to touch your own
little burden with a Divine faith, and then go back again to the high
place of unselfish prayer for others.

Have you ever learned the beautiful art of letting God take care of you,
and giving all your thought and strength to pray for others and for the
kingdom of God? It will relieve you of a thousand cares. It will lift you
up into a noble and lofty sphere, and teach you to live and love like God.
Lord save us from our selfish prayers and give us the faith that worketh
by love, and the heart of Christ for a perishing world.

FEBRUARY 7.

"Faithful in that which is least" (Luke xvi. 10).

The man that missed his opportunity and met the doom of the faithless
servant was not the man with five talents, or the man with two, but the
man who had only one. The people who are in danger of missing life's great
meaning are the people of ordinary capacity and opportunity, and who say
to themselves, "There is so little I can do that I will not try to do
anything." One of the finest windows in Europe was made from the remnants
an apprentice boy collected from the cuttings of his master's great work.
The sweepings of the British mint are worth millions. The little pivots on
which the works of your watch turn are so important that they are actually
made of jewels. And so God places a solemn value and responsibility on the
humble workers, the people that try to hide behind their insignificance
the trifling opportunities and the single talents; and our littleness will
not excuse us in the reckoning day.

"Talk not of talents, what hast thou to do?
Thou hast sufficient, whether five or two.
Talk not of talents; is thy duty done?
This brings the blessing whether ten or one."

FEBRUARY 8.

"We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves"
(II. Cor. iii. 5).

Insufficient, "All sufficient." These two words form the complement of
each other and together give the key to an efficient Christian life. The
discovery and full conviction of our utter helplessness is the constant
condition of spiritual supply. The aim of the Old Testament, therefore, is
ever t