his
very brook! He consecrated the bended knee and the silent chamber. He
refreshed His fainting spirit at the same great Fountain-head from which
it is life for us to draw and death to forsake.

Reader! do you complain of your languid spirit, your drooping faith,
your fitful affections, your lukewarm love? May you not trace much of
what you deplore to an unfrequented chamber? The treasures are locked up
from you, because you have suffered the key to rust; the hands hang down
because they have ceased to be uplifted in prayer. Without prayer!--It
is the pilgrim without a staff--the seaman without a compass--the
soldier going unarmed and unharnessed to battle.

Beware of encouraging what indisposes to prayer--going to the audience
chamber with soiled garments, the din of the world following you, its
distracting thoughts hovering unforbidden over your spirit. Can you
wonder that the living water refuses to flow through obstructed
channels, or the heavenly light to pierce murky vapors!

On earth, fellowship with a lofty order of minds imparts a certain
nobility to the character; so, in a far higher sense, by communion with
God you will be transformed into His image, and get assimilated to His
likeness. Make every event in life a reason for fresh going to Him. If
difficulted in duty, bring it to the test of prayer. If bowed down with
anticipated trial,--"fearing to enter the cloud,"--remember Christ's
preparation, "Sit ye here while I go and _pray_ yonder."

Let prayer consecrate every thing--your time, talents, pursuits,
engagements, joys, sorrows, crosses, losses. By it, rough paths will be
made smooth, trials disarmed of their bitterness, enjoyments hallowed
and refined, the bread of the world turned into angels' food. "It is in
the closet," says Payson, "the battle is lost or won!"

"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."

Tenth Day.

LOVE TO THE BRETHREN.

"And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us."--Eph. v. 2.

"Jesus," says a writer, "came from heaven on the wings of love." It was
the element in which he moved and walked. He sought to baptize the world
afresh with it. When we find Him teaching us by love to vanquish an
_enemy_, we need not wonder at the tenderness of His appeals to the
_brethren_ to "love one another." Like a fond father impressing his
children, how the Divine Teacher lingers over the lesson, "This is _My_
commandment!"

If selfishness had guided His actions, we