ho will bind himself to God? Who
will put his seal to the document, and promise to serve and obey the
Master who died for him? Will you?

Is it not right, is it not wise to pull up at times and to look at our
life, at what it has been, and at what it might have been? What about
prayer? Has it been always earnest, heartfelt, true? What about our
Bible reading? Has it been as regular, as profitable as it might have
been? Do we not feel we have come short in the past, and that we should
like to do better in the time to come?

What about sin, that besetting sin of ours, so often indulged in, so
little fought against? Are we going on like this for ever, beaten by
sin, overcome and defeated? Should we not like to leave the old careless
days behind, and for the future to fight manfully against the world, the
flesh, and the devil?

What about work for God? Have we done all that we could for His service?
Have we given Him the tenth of our money? Have we consecrated to Him our
time and our talents? Do we not feel we should like to do more for the
Master in time to come?

It is a good plan to get alone and quiet for a time, and taking a piece
of paper, to write down all we feel has been wrong in the past, all we
mean to do in the future. Then let us sign our name to it, put the date
at the bottom, fold it carefully up, put it away, let no one see it but
God, it is a covenant between us and Him. He will give us grace to keep
it if we only ask Him.

Will you try this plan this very night? Then you will open your eyes
to-morrow morning with the recollection, 'I am the Lord's; I have given
myself to Him; I am His now by my own agreement; I am pledged to His
service.'

Lord, make me faithful, keep me humble, keep me prayerful, give me grace
and courage and strength!

For 'better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest
vow and not pay.'

CHAPTER XI.

The Brave Volunteers.

'Jerusalem, my happy home, Name ever dear to me.'

So we sing, and it is the echo of the song that went up from the heart
of many a Jew in olden time.

We all love our native land, our dear old England, yet none of us love
it as the Jews loved Jerusalem. We have only to open the Book of Psalms
to see how dear the city of their fathers was to the heart of the Jews.

'Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in
the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the
whole earth, is M