be here.

Oh, hearts that sigh there's succor nigh,
The Comforter is near;
He comes to bring us to our King,
And fit us to appear.
I'm glad the Comforter has come,
And Christ will soon be here.

MARCH 11.

"But ye are a chosen generation, a peculiar people" (I. Peter ii. 9).

We have been thinking lately very much of the strange way in which God is
calling a people out of a people already called. The word _ecclesia_, or
church, means called out, but God is calling out a still more select body
from the church to be His bride--the specially prepared ones for His
coming.

We see a fine type of this in the story of Gideon. When first he sounded
the trumpet of Abiezer there resorted to him more than thirty thousand
men; but these had to be picked, so a first test was applied, appealing to
their courage, and all but ten thousand went back; but there must be an
election out of the election, and so a second test was applied, appealing
to their prudence, caution and singleness of purpose, and all but three
hundred were refused; and, with this little picked band, he raised the
standard against the Midianites, and through the power of God won his
glorious victory. So, again, in our days, the Master is choosing His three
hundred, and by them He will yet win the world for Himself. Let us be sure
that we belong to the "out and out" people.

MARCH 12.

"They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way" (Ps. cvii. 4).

All who fight the Lord's battles must be content to die to all the
favorable opinions of men and all the flattery of human praise. You cannot
make an exception in favor of the good opinions of the children of God. It
is very easy for the insidious adversary to make this also all appeal to
the flesh. It is all right when God sends us the approval of our fellow
men, but we must never make it a motive in our life, but be content with
the "solitary way" and the lonely "wilderness."

All such motives are poison and a taking away from you of the strength
with which you are to give glory to God. It is not the fact that all that
see the face of the Lord do see each other.

The man of God must walk alone with God. He must be contented that the
Lord knoweth that God knows. It is such a relief to the natural man within
us to fall back upon human countenances and human thoughts and sympathy,
that we often deceive ourselves and think it "brotherly love," when we are
just resting in the earthly