sus Christ in our lives, and grow in all these graces. If we have
peace and joy and love and gentleness and goodness and temperance; not
only being temperate in what we drink, but in what we eat, and
temperate in our language, guarded in our expressions; if we just live
in our homes as the Lord would have us, an even Christian life day by
day, we shall have a quiet and silent power proceeding from us, that
will constrain them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But an uneven
life, hot to-day and cold tomorrow, will only repel. Many are watching
God's people. It is just the very worst thing that can happen to those
whom we want to win to Christ, to see us, at any time, in a cold,
backslidden state. This is not the normal condition of the Church; it
is not God's intention; He would have us growing in all these graces,
and the only true, happy, Christian life is to be growing, constantly
growing in the love and favor of God, growing in all those delightful
graces of the Spirit.

Even the vilest, the most impure, acknowledge the power of goodness;
they recognize the fruit of the Spirit. It may condemn their lives and
cause them to say bitter things at times, but down deep in their
hearts they know that the man or woman who is living that kind of
life, is superior to them. The world don't satisfy them, and if we can
show the world that Jesus Christ does satisfy us in our present life,
it will be more powerful than the eloquent words of professional
reformers. A man may preach with the eloquence of an angel, but if he
don't live what he preaches, and act out in his home and his business
what he professes, his testimony goes for naught, and the people say
it is all hypocrisy after all; it is all a sham. Words are very empty,
if there is nothing back of them. Your testimony is poor and
worthless, if there is not a record back of that testimony consistent
with what you profess. What we need is to pray to God to lift us up
out of this low, cold, formal state that we have been living in, that
we may live in the atmosphere of God continually, and that the Lord
may lift upon us the light of his countenance, and that we may shine
in this world, reflecting His grace and glory.

The first of the graces spoken of in Galatians, and the last mentioned
in Peter, is charity or love. We can not serve God, we can not work
for God unless we have love. That is the key which unlocks the human
heart. If I can prove to a man that I come to him o