he green hill far away."

It will save me from having a cheap religion. I shall never handle the
gifts of grace as though they had cost nothing. There will always be the
marks of blood upon them, the crimson stain of incomparable sacrifice.

And it will save me from all flippancy in my religious life. When I visit
the cross and the tomb, life is transformed from a picnic into a crusade.
For that is ever my peril, to picnic on the banks of the river and to
spend my days in emotional loitering.

After all, my Pentecost is purposed to prepare me for my own Gethsemane
and Calvary! Life is given me in order that I may spend it again in ready
and fruitful sacrifice.

MAY The Twenty-fifth

_VISIONS AND DREAMS_

JOEL ii. 21-32.

And this old-world promise is good for me to-day. It is like some
weather-stained well, whose waters have continued flowing throughout the
generations, right down to my own time. Let me drink!

Holy inspiration will give me insight into the mind of my God. "_Your sons
and your daughters shall prophesy._" The breath of God creates an
atmosphere in which spiritual realities are clearly seen. It is like the
Sabbath air in some busy city, when the fumes and smoke of commerce have
been blown away. "Thou shalt behold the land that is very far off."

And so in my younger days holy inspiration will give me visions. "Your
young men shall see visions." I shall be an idealist, and I shall see
things as they exist in God's idea, even though at present they be maimed
and imperfect. I shall see them "according to the pattern on the Mount."

And in my later days holy inspiration will give me dreams. "_Your old men
shall dream dreams._" And what shall they dream about? Not like the
Chinese, of a golden age in a distant past, but of a golden age to be.
Their dreams shall have a "forward-looking eye." They shall see "the new
Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God."

MAY The Twenty-sixth

_THE UNITING OF SUNDERED PEOPLES_

"_On the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost._"
--ACTS x. 34-48.

And this is ever the issue of a true outpouring of the Spirit: sundered
peoples become one. At "low tide" there are multitudes of separated pools
along the shore: at "high tide" they flow together, and the little
distinctions are lost in a splendid union.

It is so racially. "Jew and Gentile!" Peter and Cornelius lose their
prejudices in the emancipating ministry of the Spirit. A