tering, some noise, may be a few
stray drops--but no more. And folks seem thirstier because they were
expecting a cool, satisfying drink that never came.

I think I know why it is so. The secret connection with the reservoir has
been tampered with. There _must_ be the secret contact with Jesus
cultivated habitually if there is to be a sweet, strong outer life. And
not cultivated by hothouse methods. Such plants won't stand the chilly air
outside the glass-house. Cultivated by natural, simple contact with Jesus,
over His Word, habitually, until everything comes under the influence of
that secret life.

One day a man was standing on a busy downtown thoroughfare in Cleveland
waiting for a car. There was a thick, dirty wire hanging down from the
cross arm high up of the wire pole. He happened to stop there. And
absorbed in thought, he mechanically put out his hand and took hold of the
wire. Instantly a look of intense agony came into his face. His arm, and
whole body began twisting and writhing. Then he fell to the ground
lifeless. The dirty-looking wire had direct connections with the
power-house. It was throbbing with a strong current. It was a "live" wire.

Some men who have seemed quite unattractive in the light of some modern
standards have been found on touch to be charged with a life current of
tremendous power. And some others, outwardly more attractive, have been
found to be as powerless as a dead wire. And some there have been, and
are, very winsome and attractive in themselves, and charged with the life
current too. The great thing is the secret connections carefully
maintained with the source of power.

There must be the closest kind of touch with God if His plan through us
for a planet is to carry out. We do not run on the storage battery plan,
but on the trolley plan, or the third rail. There must be constant full
touch with the feed wire or rail. And that "must" should be spelled in
capitals, and printed in red, and triply underscored.

A man _must_ plan for the bit of quiet time daily, preferably in the early
morning, alone with Jesus; with the door shut, the Book open, the spirit
quiet, the mind alert, the knee bent, the will bent too. If it be
resolutely _planned_ for it can be gotten in every life. If not planned
for with a bit of red iron in the will, it will surely slip out. And the
man will surely slip down.

Here is found the spirit in which a man may live all the day long,
wherever his feet may