he winsome poppies, and put me into a perilous sleep.

And I must "_pray_!" I have a great and glorious Defender! Let me humbly
yet confidently use Him, and I shall be delivered from the snares of
appetite, and from the benumbing influence of all excess.

MARCH The Second

_THE POWER OF THE CROSS_

JOHN x. 11-18.

"I lay down my life." In that supreme sacrifice all other sacrifices turn
pale. In the power of that sacrifice the blackest guilt finds forgiveness.
Its energies seek out the ruined and desolate life with glorious offer of
renewal. When the Lord laid down His life the entire race found a new
beginning. Our hope is born at the Cross. It is there that "the burden of
our sin rolls away." In His night we find daybreak. When He said, "It is
finished," our soul could sing, "Life is begun."

And so pilgrims gather at the Cross. Songs are heard there, the "sweetest
ever sung by mortal tongues." And the power of the Cross never wanes. Its
glorious grace reaches the soul to-day as in the earliest days. It
inspires the despairing heart. It transforms the mind. It remakes the
tissues of the will. There is no shattered power that the power of the
Cross cannot restore. "We are complete in Him."

"In the Cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o'er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime."

MARCH The Third

_PREPARING FOR THE BRIDE_

JOHN xiv. 1-14.

Our Lord has prepared a place. It is the Bridegroom "getting the house
ready" for the bride. And, therefore, the preparations are not made
grudgingly and with slow reluctance. Everything is of the best, and done
with the swift delight of love. "Come, for all things are now ready."

And our Lord will fetch His bride to the prepared place. "I am the way."
We become so wrapt up in Him that nothing else counts. I once travelled
through the Black Country with a fascinating friend, and I never saw it!
And we can become so absorbed in our glorious Bridegroom that we shall be
almost oblivious of adverse circumstances which may beset us. Yes, even
this is possible: "He that believeth in Me shall never see death!"

"I will receive you unto Myself." The last obscuring veil is to be rent,
and we are to see Him "face to face." And that will be home, for that will
be satisfaction and peace. The deepest hunger of the soul will be
gratified in a glorious contentment, and we shall find that "the half hath
not