d he not be failing in duty if he chose to spend it
all on something for somebody else's work, or on a present for his
master, fancying that would please him better, while the machine is
creaking and wearing for want of a little oil, or working badly for want
of a new band or screw? Just so, we are to spend what is really needful
_on_ ourselves, because it is our charge to do so; but not _for_
ourselves, because we are not our own, but our Master's. He who knoweth
our frame, knows its needs of rest and medicine, food and clothing; and
the procuring of these for our own entrusted bodies should be done just
as much 'for Jesus' as the greater pleasure of procuring them for some
one else. Therefore there need be no quibbling over the assertion that
consecration is not real and complete while we are looking upon a single
shilling as our own to do what we like with. Also the principle is
exactly the same, whether we are spending pence or pounds; it is our
Lord's money, and must not be spent without reference to Him.

When we have asked Him to take, and continually trust Him to keep our
money, 'shopping' becomes a different thing. We look up to our Lord for
guidance to lay out His money prudently and rightly, and as He would have
us lay it out. The gift or garment is selected consciously under His eye,
and with conscious reference to Him as our own dear Master, for whose
sake we shall give it, or in whose service we shall wear it, and whose
own silver or gold we shall pay for it, and then it is all right.

But have you found out that it is one of the secrets of the Lord, that
when any of His dear children turn aside a little bit after having once
entered the blessed path of true and conscious consecration, He is sure
to send them some little punishment? He will not let us go back without a
sharp, even if quite secret, reminder. Go and spend ever such a little
without reference to Him after you have once pledged the silver and gold
entirely to Him, and see if you are not in some way rebuked for it! Very
often by being permitted to find that you have made a mistake in your
purchase, or that in some way it does not prosper. If you 'observe these
things,' you will find that the more closely we are walking with our
Lord, the more immediate and unmistakeable will be His gracious rebukes
when we swerve in any detail of the full consecration to which He has
called us. And if you have already experienced and recognised this part
of His