hat receiveth it. How
quickly that goes home to many a faithful life. Hidden from all that
can be read by {97} others is the writing which one bears upon his own
breast, legible only to himself and to his God. Think how hardly and
carelessly people try to judge one's life, to read its characteristics
of strength or weakness. Think how we all thus deal in hasty judgment,
stamping our neighbors as jovial or moody, generous or selfish, as kind
or stern, as sinner or saint; while all the time, deeper than any
interpretation of ours can reach, there is the central sanctuary of the
man's own soul, where is worn against his breast the real title which
to his own consciousness he bears, and which may quite contradict all
external judgments. What is written on that interior life? What is
that name you bear which no man knoweth save you;--that life of
yourself which is hidden with Christ in God? That is the most solemn
question which any man can ask himself as he bends to say his silent
prayer.

Is it just your own name, the badge of selfishness; or is it some vow
of irresponsibility,--Am I my brother's keeper?--or is it just a sheer
blank white stone, marking a life without intention or character at
all? Or is there perhaps written there the pure {98} demand to be of
use?--"For their sakes I sanctify myself;"--or is there written on your
heart the name of God, or of his Christ, so that this interior maxim
reads: "I live, yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me"?

{99}

XL

THE MORNING STAR

_Revelation_ ii. 18-28.

The morning star is the symbol of promise, the sign that the dawn is
not far away. Thyatira was a little place, with a weak church, with
small hopes and great discouragements, much troubled by the work of a
false prophetess, tempted by "the deep things of Satan," as the message
says, and yet to it the promise is committed, that it shall have
authority over the nations, and receive "the morning star." It was the
same great promise that had been already given to the early Christians:
"Fear not, little flock, for it is my Father's good pleasure to give
you the kingdom." It was the same amazing optimism which made Jesus
look about him, as he stood with a dozen humble followers, and say:
"Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, they are white already to my
harvest."

There is certainly passing over the world in our day a great wave of
intellectual and {100} spiritual discouragement and desponde