ene committal of the soul to the strong keeping of the
Eternal God. "_He committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously._"
This is the way of peace, as this is the way of victory. If ever the enemy
is to be conquered this must be the mode of the conquest. When men
persecute us, let us rest more implicitly in our God.

MARCH The Thirty-first

_AT THE CROSS!_

MATTHEW xxvii. 38-50.

Let me listen to the ribald jeers which were flung upon my Lord. And let
me listen, not as a judge, but as one who has been in the company of the
callous crowd. For I, too, have mocked Him! I have said: "Hail, King!" and
I have bowed before Him, but it has been mock and empty homage! I have
sung: "Crown Him Lord of all!" but there has been no real recognition of
His sovereignty; mine has been a mock coronation. From the seat of the
mocker, deliver me, good Lord!

And let me stand near the cross while that awful voice of desolation rends
the heavens. "_My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?_" In that
agonizing cry I am led to the real heart of the atonement. My Saviour was
standing where His believers will never stand. That was the real death,
the death of an inconceivable abandonment. And "He died for me!" He so
died in order that I may never taste death. "He that liveth and believeth
in Me shall never die."

Every believer will go to sleep, and through a short sleep he will wake in
the glory of the Eternal Presence. But he will never die: no, never die!

APRIL The First

_THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS_

LUKE xxiii. 33-47.

Look at our Lord in relation to His foes. "_Father, forgive them; for they
know not what they do!_" Their bitterness has not embittered Him. The
"milk of human kindness" was still sweet. Nothing could sour our Lord, and
convert His goodwill into malice, His serene beneficence into wild
revenge. And how is it with me? Are my foes able to maim my spirit as well
as my body? Do they win their end by making me a smaller man? Or am I
magnanimous even on the cross?

And look at our Lord in relation to the penitent thief. "_To-day shalt
thou be with Me in Paradise._" There was no self-centredness in our
Saviour's grief. He was the good Physician, even when His body was mangled
on the cross. He healed a broken heart even in the very pangs of death.
When "there was darkness over all the earth," He let the light of the
morning into the heart of a desolate thief. And, good Lord, graciously
help me to do l