the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him._"
--ISAIAH xi. 1-10.

And the spirit is one of light! All the doors and windows are open. His
correspondences are perfect and unbroken. He is of "quick understanding,"
keen-scented to discern the essences of things, alert to perceive the
reality behind the semblance, to "see things as they are." All the great
primary senses are awake, and He has knowledge of every "secret place."

"_He shall smite ... with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His
lips shall He slay._" The spirit of light follows a crusade of holiness.
The light becomes lightning! The "breathing," which cools the
fever-stricken, can also become a hot breath, which wastes and destroys
every plant of evil desire. It is an awful thing, and yet a gracious
thing, that "our God is a consuming fire." It was foretold of our Lord
that He should baptize "with fire."

And this crusade of holiness is in the ministry of peace. He will burn
away all that defileth, in order that He may create a profound and
permanent fellowship. When His work is done, there will be a mingling of
apparent opposites, and antagonisms will melt into a gracious union. "The
sucking child will play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall
put his hand on the adder's den."

JULY The Third

_MY ELDER BROTHER_

HEBREWS ii. 9-18.

And doth my Lord call me one of His brethren? Let me leisurely think upon
it, until my very soul moves amid my affairs in noble and hallowed
dignity. If I steadily remember "who I am," it will assuredly transfigure
"what I am." I lose the sense of my high kinship, and then I am quite
content to be "sent into the fields to feed swine."

And my elder Brother came to "destroy the works of the devil." That is the
entire ministry of destruction. Nothing beautiful does He destroy, nothing
winsome: only the insidious presences which are the foes of these things.
He will destroy only the pestiferous microbes which ravage the vital peace
of the soul. Our Lord is the enemy of the deadly, and therefore of "him
that had the power of death--that is, the devil!"

And in this holy ministry of destruction He can defend my soul as "one who
knows," Himself "having been tempted." He knows the subtlety of the devil,
and where the soul is most perilously exposed, and He is therefore "able
to succour them that are tempted."

JULY The Fourth

_EMPTYING ONESELF_

"_He emptied Himself._"
--PHILIPPIANS