t anew, to
return anew, to believe and to love anew. And if all your New-Year
repentances and returnings and reformations are all already proved to be
but temporary--even if they lie all around you already a bitter mockery
of all your professions--still, begin again. Begin to-night, and begin
again to-morrow morning. Spend all the remainder of your days on earth
beginning. And, ere ever you are aware, the final perseverance of
another predestinated saint will be found accomplished in you.

SECRET

"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him."--_David_.

A truly religious life is always a secret life: it is a life hid, as Paul
has it, with Christ in God. The secret of the Lord, says the Psalmist,
is with them that fear Him. And thus it is that when men begin to fear
God, both their hearts and their lives are henceforth full of all kinds
of secrets that are known to themselves and to God only. It was when
Christiana's fearful thoughts began to work in her mind about her husband
whom she had lost--it was when all her unkind, unnatural, and ungodly
carriages to her dear friend came into her mind in swarms, clogged her
conscience, and loaded her with guilt--it was then that Secret knocked at
her door. "Next morning," so her opening history runs, "when she was up,
and had prayed to God, and talked with her children awhile, one knocked
hard at the door to whom she spake out, saying, If thou comest in God's
name, come in. So he who was at the door said, Amen, and opened the
door, and saluted her with, Peace be to this house. The which when he
had done, he said, Christiana, knowest thou wherefore I am come? Then
she blushed and trembled, also her heart began to wax warm with desires
to know whence he came, and what was his errand to her. So he said unto
her, My name is Secret, I dwell with those that are high. It is talked
of where I dwell as if thou hadst a desire to go thither; also, there is
a report that thou art aware now of the evil thou formerly didst to thy
husband in hardening of thy heart against his way, and in keeping of thy
babes in their ignorance. Christiana, the Merciful One has sent me to
tell thee that He is a God ready to forgive, and that He taketh delight
to multiply to pardon offences. He would also have thee know that He
inviteth thee to come into His presence, even to His table, and that He
will there feed thee with the fat of His house, and with the heritage of
Jacob th