t
savour,' so, after laying the hand of our faith upon Christ, suffering
and dying for us, we are to lay that very same hand of faith, and in the
very same way, upon Him as consecrated for us, to be the source and life
and power of our consecration. And then our hands shall be filled with
'consecrations,' filled with Christ, and filled with all that is a sweet
savour to God in Him.

'And who then is willing to fill his hand this day unto the Lord?' Do you
want an added motive? Listen again: 'Fill your hands to-day to the Lord,
that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day.' Not a long time hence,
not even to-morrow, but 'this day.' Do you not want a blessing? Is not
your answer to your Father's 'What wilt thou?' the same as Achsah's,
'Give me a blessing!' Here is His promise of just what you so want; will
you not gladly fulfil His condition? A blessing shall immediately follow.
He does not specify what it shall be; He waits to reveal it. You will
find it such a blessing as you had not supposed could be for you--a
blessing that shall verily make you rich, with no sorrow added--a
blessing _this day_.

All that has been said about consecration applies to our literal members.
Stay a minute, and look at your hand, the hand that holds this little
book as you read it. See how wonderfully it is made; how perfectly fitted
for what it has to do; how ingeniously connected with the brain, so as to
yield that instantaneous and instinctive obedience without which its
beautiful mechanism would be very little good to us! _Your_ hand, do you
say? Whether it is soft and fair with an easy life, or rough and strong
with a working one, or white and weak with illness, it is the Lord Jesus
Christ's. It is not your own at all; it belongs to Him. He made it, for
without Him was not anything made that was made, not even your hand. And
He has the added right of purchase--He has bought it that it might be one
of His own instruments. We know this very well, but have we realized it?
Have we really let Him have the use of these hands of ours? and have we
ever simply and sincerely asked Him to keep them for His own use?

Does this mean that we are always to be doing some definitely 'religious'
work, as it is called? No, but that _all that we do_ is to be always
definitely done _for Him_. There is a great difference. If the hands are
indeed moving 'at the impulse of His love,' the simplest little duties
and acts are transfigured into holy service