ruth and thinks it true. He looks upon
confusion and thinks it order. Envy is colour-blind. It is like jealousy,
of which it is a blood-relation. It never sees anything in its natural
hues. It misinterprets everything.

No one can quench the unholy fire of envy but the mighty God Himself. It
is like a prairie fire: once kindled it is beyond our power to stamp it
out. But God's coolness is more than a match for all our feverish heat.
His quenchings are transformations. He converts the perverted and changes
envy into goodwill. The bitter pool is made sweet. For confusion He gives
order, for ashes He gives beauty, and in the face of an old enemy we see
the countenance of a friend.

JANUARY The Twenty-seventh

_THE CONFESSION OF SIN_

"_I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me._"
--PSALM li. 1-12.

Sin that is unconfessed shuts out the energies of grace. Confession makes
the soul receptive of the bountiful waters of life. We open the door to
God as soon as we name our sin. Guilt that is penitently confessed is
already in the "consuming fire" of God's love. When I "acknowledge my sin"
I begin to enter into the knowledge of "pardon, joy, and peace." But if I
hide my sin I also hide myself from "the unsearchable riches of Christ."
"If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

I must then make confession of sin in my daily exercises in the presence
of the Lord. I am taking the way to recovered victory when I tell the Lord
the story of my defeat. Satan strengthens his awful chains when he can
induce me to keep silence concerning my sin. All his plans are thrown into
confusion as soon as I "pour out my soul before the Lord." When I fall let
me not add to my guilt the further sin of secrecy. Unconfessed sin breeds
in its lurking-place and multiplies its hateful offspring. The soul that
makes confession is washed through and through, and the seeds of iniquity
are driven out of my soul.

JANUARY The Twenty-eighth

_CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANGER_

EPHESIANS iv. 25-32.

"Let all anger be put away from you." And yet only a moment ago the
Apostle had written the words, "Be ye angry and sin not." My power of
anger is not to be destroyed, it is to be transformed and purified. Anger
can be like an unclean bonfire; it can also be like "a sea of glass
mingled with fire." There can be more smoke than light in it, more selfish