nceive._" Poetic imagination may
stretch her wings, and soar, but she fails to enter the guest-chamber of
the Lord, and take an inventory of "the things prepared." All these
gracious ministries fail to reach life's glorious and purposed end.

"_But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit._" When art, and
poetry, and philosophy all pitiably fail, the Spirit unveils to us the
bewildering feast. And so the unlearned has the same ultimate advantage as
the learned, and the cottager has equal privilege with the monarch. The
greatest things are not the perquisites of culture, but the endowments of
humility and holy faith. The poor man has access to the "many mansions,"
and finds a place at the King's feast.

NOVEMBER The Ninth

_THE HOLY SPIRIT AS EMANCIPATOR_

2 CORINTHIANS iii. 4-18.

In the Holy Spirit I experience a large emancipation. "_Where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty._" I am delivered from all enslaving
bondage--from the bondage of literalism, and legalism, and ritualism. I am
not hampered by excessive harness, by multitudinous rules. The harness is
fitting and congenial, and I have freedom of movement, and "my yoke is
easy and my burden is light."

And I am to use my emancipation of spirit in the ministry of
contemplation. I am to "_behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord_."
My thought has been set free from the cramping distractions devised by
men, and I am now to feast my gaze upon the holy splendours of my Lord. It
is like coming out of a little and belittling tent, to feast upon the
sunny amplitude of the open sky! I can "cease from man," and commune with
God.

And the contemplation will effect a transformation. "_We are changed into
the same image from glory to glory._" The serene brightness of the sky
gets into our faces. The Lord becomes "_the health of our countenance_,"
and we shine with borrowed glory.

NOVEMBER The Tenth

_NEVERTHELESS!_

LUKE v. 1-11.

Here is obedience in spite of the night of failure. "_Nevertheless, at Thy
word I will let down the net._" That word "nevertheless" has always made
history. It has been spoken after scourgings, after "bonds and
imprisonments." Ten thousand times has it been heard in the chamber of
bereavement, the first sound to break the awful silence. "At evening my
wife died.... In the morning I did as God commanded me." And may it be
true of me! May my "nevertheless" of willing obedience rise like a lark
above the