tempted to indulge in something wrong,--idleness or carelessness, or
selfishness,--this will help you to give it up at once, and forsake it;
for how can you give way to it when your eye meets His? When something
makes you afraid, this will make you brave and peaceful; for how can you
fear anything when your God is so near? When lessons, or work, or even
having to be quiet with nothing to do, seem very tiresome, and you are
tempted to be impatient, and perhaps cross, this will help you to endure
and not only so, but to feel patient; for how can you be impatient when
you are looking up to Him, and He is looking down on you all the time!

"God will not leave me all alone,
He never will forsake His own;
When not another friend I see,
The Lord is looking down on me."

29. Twenty-Ninth Day.

No Weights.

"Let us lay aside every weight."--Heb. xii. 1.

If you were going to run a race, you would first put down all the parcels
you might have been carrying. And if you had a heavy little parcel in your
pocket, you would take that out, and lay it down too, because it would
hinder you in running. You would know better than to say, "I will put down
the parcels which I have in my hands, but nobody can see the one in my
pocket, so that one won't matter!" You would "lay aside _every_ weight."

You have a race to run to-day, a little piece of the great race that is
set before you. God has set a splendid prize before you, "the prize of
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," a crown that is incorruptible.

Now what are you going to do about the weights, the things that hinder you
from running this race? You know some things do seem to hinder you; will
you keep them or lay them aside? Will you only lay aside something that
every one can see is hindering you, so that you will get a little credit
for putting it down, and keep something that your own little conscience
knows is a real hindrance, though no one else knows anything at all about
it? Oh, take St. Paul's wise and holy advice, and make up your mind to lay
aside _every_ weight.

Different persons have different weights; we must find out what ours are,
and give them up. One finds that if she does not get up directly she is
called, the time slips by, and there is not enough left for quiet prayer
and Bible-reading. Then here is a little weight that must be laid aside.
Another is at school, and finds that he gets no good, but a little harm,
when he