"In the wilderness shall waters break out!"

We must prayerfully cultivate this sacred confidence in the possibilities
of the unlikely. We can never be successful helpers of the Lord unless we
can see the diamond in the soot, and the radiant saint in the disregarded
publican. It is a most gracious art to cultivate, this of discerning a
man's possible excellencies even in the blackness of his present shame. To
see the future best in the present worst, that is the true perception of a
child of light.

"O give us eyes to see like Thee!" Well, this is the medium of
vision:--"Blessed are the pure in heart, for _they shall see_ God," and
the god-like, even in the wilderness of sin. "Anoint thine eyes with
eye-salve, that thou may'st see!"

JULY The Fifteenth

_THE DAILY CROSS_

LUKE ix. 18-26.

Our Lord never bribes His disciples by promising them ways of sunny ease.
He does not buy them with illicit gold. He does not put the glittering
crown upon the entrance-gate, and hide the cross behind the wall. No: on
the very first stage of the sacred pilgrimage there falls "the shadow of
the Cross." "_Let him take up his cross daily, and follow Me._"

And yet, the Lord's blessing is hidden in the apparent curse. In the act
of bearing the cross we increase our strength. That is the heartening
paradox of grace. Virtuous energies pass from our very burdens into our
spirits, and thus "out of the eater comes forth meat." We bravely shoulder
our load, and lo! a mystic breath visits the heart, and a strange facility
attends our goings! The dead cross becomes a tree of life, and a secret
vitality renews our souls.

How foolish, then, O heart of mine, to avoid and evade Thy cross! Refuse
the burden, and thou declinest the strength! Ignore the duty, and thou
shalt feel no inspiration! Carefully husband thy blood, and thou shalt
remain for ever anaemic! But lose thy life, and thou shalt find it!

JULY The Sixteenth

_THE VINE AND THE BRANCH_

JOHN xv. 1-16.

I need the Lord. What can a branch do apart from the vine? It may retain a
certain, momentary greenness, but death is advancing apace. And there are
multitudes of professing Christians who are like detached branches; their
spiritual life is ebbing away: they do not startle the beholder and cause
him to exclaim, "How full of life!" They do not _strike_ at all! They have
no splendid "_force_ of character," and they therefore exercise no
arresting witness for th