d temperament,
and hold me in its icy embrace. And none but the Lord can bring me out.

And there is _the prison-house of death_. I must perforce pass through the
gate of death. Shall I find it a castle of gloom, or is there another gate
through which I shall emerge into the fair, sweet paradise of God? My
Master is Lord of the road! And He tells me that death shall not be a
castle of captivity, but only a thoroughfare through which I shall pass
into the realm of eternal day.

FEBRUARY The Second

_HOW TO APPROACH A CRISIS_

"_It shall be given you in that same hour._"
--MATTHEW x. 16-28.

And so I am not to worry about the coming crisis! "God never is before His
time, and never is behind!" When the hour is come, I shall find that the
great Host hath made "all things ready."

When the crisis comes _He will tell me how to rest_. It is a great matter
to know just how to rest--how to be quiet when "all without tumultuous
seems." We irritate and excite our souls about the coming emergency, and
we approach it with worn and feverish spirits, and so mar our Master's
purpose and work.

When the crisis comes _He will tell me what to do_. The orders are not
given until the appointed day. Why should I fume and fret and worry as to
what the sealed envelope contains? "It is enough that He knows all," and
when the hour strikes the secrets shall be revealed.

And when the crisis comes _He will tell me what to say_. I need not begin
to prepare my retorts and my responses. What shall I say when death comes,
to me or to my loved one? Never mind, He will tell thee. And what when
sorrow or persecution comes? Never mind, He will tell thee.

FEBRUARY The Third

_TRANSFORMING THE HARD HEART_

_The Lord "turned the flint into a fountain of waters."_
--PSALM cxiv.

What a violent conjunction, the flint becoming the birthplace of a spring!
And yet this is happening every day. Men who are as "hard as flint," whose
hearts are "like the nether millstone," become springs of gentleness and
fountains of exquisite compassion. Beautiful graces, like lovely ferns,
grow in the home of severities, and transform the grim, stern soul into a
garden of fragrant friendships. This is what Zacchaeus was like when his
flint became a fountain. It is what Matthew the publican was like when the
Lord changed his hard heart into a land of springs.

No one is "too far gone." No hardness is beyond the love and pity of God.
The well of ete