e surprise and remark, as this
might do. And so the banner is kept furled, the witness for Jesus is not
borne, and you sing for others and not for your King.

The words had passed your lips, 'Take my voice!' And yet you will not let
Him have it; you will not let Him have that which costs you something,
just _because_ it costs you something! And yet He lent you that pleasant
voice that you might use it for Him. And yet He, in the sureness of His
perpetual presence, was beside you all the while, and heard every note as
you sang the songs which were, as your inmost heart knew, _not_ for Him.

Where is your faith? Where is the consecration you have talked about? The
voice has not been kept for Him, because it has not been truly and
unreservedly given to Him. Will you not now say, 'Take my voice, for I
had not given it to Thee; keep my voice, for I cannot keep it for Thee'?

And He will keep it! You cannot tell, till you have tried, how surely all
the temptations flee when it is no longer your battle but the Lord's; nor
how completely and _curiously_ all the difficulties vanish, when you
simply and trustfully go forward in the path of full consecration in this
matter. You will find that the keeping is most wonderfully real. Do not
expect to lay down rules and provide for every sort of contingency. If
you could, you would miss the sweetness of the continual guidance in the
'kept' course. Have only one rule about it--just to look up to your
Master about every single song you are asked or feel inclined to sing. If
you are 'willing and obedient,' you will always meet His guiding eye. He
will always keep the voice that is wholly at His disposal. Soon you will
have such experience of His immediate guidance that you will be utterly
satisfied with it, and only sorrowfully wonder you did not sooner thus
simply lean on it.

I have just received a letter from one who has laid her special gift at
the feet of the Giver, yielding her voice to Him with hearty desire that
it might be kept for His use. She writes: 'I had two lessons on singing
while in Germany from our Master. One was very sweet. A young girl wrote
to me, that when she had heard me sing, "O come, every one that
thirsteth," she went away and prayed that she might come, and she _did_
come, too. Is not He good? The other was: I had been tempted to join the
_Gesang Verein_ in N----. I prayed to be shown whether I was right in so
doing or not. I did not see my way clear, so I w