or whatsoever we do, we may do all to His glory,' so that we
can, even in the midst of our daily pressing avocations and cares be
keeping our hearts in the heavens, and our souls in touch with our Lord.

But it is not only things without that draw us away. Our own weaknesses
and waywardnesses, our strong senses, our passions, our desires, our
necessities, all these have a counteracting force, which needs continual
watchfulness in order to be neutralised. No man can grasp a stay, which
alone keeps him from being immersed in the waves, with uniform tenacity,
unless every now and then he tightens his muscles. And no man can keep
himself firmly grasping Jesus Christ without conscious effort directed
to bettering his hold.

If there be dangers around us, and dangers within us, the discipline
which we have to pursue in order to secure this uniform, single-hearted
devotion is plain enough. Let us be vividly conscious of the
peril--which is what some of us are not. Let us take stock of ourselves
lest creeping evil may be encroaching upon us, while we are all
unaware--which is what some of us never do. Let us clearly contemplate
the possibility of an indefinite increase in the closeness and
thoroughness of our surrender to Him--a conviction which has faded away
from the minds of many professing Christians. Above all, let us find
time or make time for the patient, habitual contemplation of the great
facts which kindle our devotion. For if you never think of Jesus Christ
and His love to you, how can you love Him back again? And if you are so
busy carrying out your own secular affairs, or pursuing your own
ambitions, or attending to your own duties, as they may seem to be, that
you have no time to think of Christ, His death, His life, His Spirit,
His yearning heart over His bride, how can it be expected that you will
have any depth of love to Him? Let us, too, wait with prayerful patience
for that Divine Spirit who will knit us more closely to our Lord.

Unless we do so, we shall get no happiness out of our religion, and it
will bring no praise to Christ or profit to ourselves. I do not know a
more miserable man than a half-and-half Christian, after the pattern of,
I was going to say, the ordinary average of professing Christians of
this generation. He has religion enough to prick and sting him, and not
enough to impel him to forsake the evil which yet he cannot comfortably
do. He has religion enough to 'inflame his conscience,' n