muddy my sight will be dim.
If my love be "clear as crystal" the spiritual realm will be like a
gloriously transparent air.

And the awful nemesis of sin-created blindness is this, that it interprets
itself as sight. "The light that is in thee is darkness." We think we see,
and all the time we are the children of the night. We think it is "the
dawn of God's sweet morning," and behold! it is the perverse flare of the
evil one. He has given us a will-o'-the-wisp, and we boastfully proclaim
it to be "the morning star."

But there is hope for any man, however blind he be, who will humbly lay
himself at Jesus' feet. Let this be my prayer, O Lord, "Cleanse Thou me
from secret faults." Deliver me from self-deception, save me from
confusing the fixed light of heaven with the wandering beacon-lights of
hell. And again and again will I pray, "Lord, that I might receive my
sight!"

MAY The Twenty-third

_WIND AND FIRE_

ACTS ii. 1-21.

The Holy Spirit will minister to me as a _wind_. He will create an
atmosphere in my life which will quicken all sweet and beautiful growth.
And this shall be my native air. Gracious seeds, which have never awaked,
shall now unfold themselves, and "the desert shall rejoice and blossom as
the rose." It was a saying of Huxley, that if our little island were to be
invaded by tropical airs, tropical seeds which are now lying dormant in
English gardens and fields would troop out of their graves in bewildering
wealth and beauty! "Breathe on me, breath of God!"

And the Holy Spirit will minister to me as a _fire_. And fire is our
supreme minister of cleansing. Fire can purify when water is impotent. The
great fire burnt out the great plague. There are evil germs which cannot
be dealt with except by the searching ministry of the flame. "He shall
baptize you ... _with fire_." He will create a holy enthusiasm in my soul,
an intense and sacred love, which will burn up all evil intruders, but in
which all beautiful things shall walk unhurt.

"Kindle a flame of sacred love
On these cold hearts of ours."

MAY The Twenty-fourth

_CALVARY AND PENTECOST_

ACTS ii. 22-36.

The Apostle Peter traces the stream of Pentecostal blessing to a tomb.
This "river of water of life" has its "rise" in a death of transcendent
sacrifice. And I must never forget these dark beginnings of my eternal
hope. It is well that I should frequently visit the sources of my
blessedness, and kneel on "t