also everywhere we can get at God. There are
"ascending angels" who will carry our confessions, our prayers, our sighs
and mournings, to the very heart of the eternally gracious God.

FEBRUARY The Sixth

_THE HOME-BIRD_

PSALM xci. 1-12.

I read a sentence the other day in which a very powerful modern writer
describes a certain woman as "having God on her visiting list." We may
recoil from the phrase, but it very vitally describes a very awful
commonplace. Countless thousands have God on their visiting lists. They
pay Him courtesy-calls, and between the calls He is forgotten. Perhaps the
call is paid once a week in the social function of worship. Perhaps it is
paid more rarely, like calls between comparative strangers. How great the
contrast between a caller and one who dwells in the secret place! It is
the difference between a flirt and a "home-bird," between one who flits
about on a score of fancies, and one who settles down in the solid
satisfaction of a supreme affection.

"_Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty._" Such is the reward of
the "home-bird," the settled friend of the Lord. The shadow of the Lord
shall rest upon him continually. I sometimes read of our monarchs being
"shadowed" by protective police. In an infinitely more real and intimate
sense the soul that dwells in "the secret place" is shadowed by the
sleepless grace and love of God.

FEBRUARY The Seventh

_LEAVING ITS MARK_

"_Fear not, thou worm Jacob, I will make thee a threshing
instrument with teeth._"
--ISAIAH xli. 8-14.

Could any two things be in greater contrast than a worm and an instrument
with teeth? The worm is delicate, bruised by a stone, crushed beneath a
passing wheel; an instrument with teeth can break and not be broken, it
can grave its mark upon the rock. And the mighty God can convert the one
into the other. He can take a man or a nation, who has all the impotence
of the worm, and by the invigoration of His own Spirit He can endow them
with strength by which they will leave a noble mark upon the history of
their time.

And so the "worm" may take heart. The mighty God can make us stronger than
our circumstances. We can bend them all to our good. In God's strength we
can make them all pay tribute to our souls. We can even take hold of a
black disappointment, break it open, and extract some jewel of grace. When
God gives us wills like iron we can drive through difficulties as the iron
share cuts t