Faith goes out on this invincible reliance. It is "the a.s.surance of things hoped for." And by faith it inherits these things and is rich and strong in their possession.

MARCH The First

_OVERCHARGING THE HEART_

LUKE xxi. 25-36.

Here is a great peril. Our hearts may be "_overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares_." Our mode of living may send our spirits to sleep. Yes, we may so ill-use our bodies that the watchman sleeps at his post! We can over-eat, and dim our moral sight. A man's daily meals have vital relationship with his vision of the Lord. If I would have a clear spirit I must not overburden the flesh.

And therefore am I bidden to "_take heed_" to myself. I must exercise common sense, the most important of all the senses. I must put a bridle upon my appet.i.te, and hold it in subjection to my Lord.

And I must "_watch_!" The devil is surpa.s.singly cunning, and, if he can, he will mix an opiate even with the sacramental wine. He will lure me among the winsome poppies, and put me into a perilous sleep.

And I must "_pray_!" I have a great and glorious Defender! Let me humbly yet confidently use Him, and I shall be delivered from the snares of appet.i.te, and from the benumbing influence of all excess.

MARCH The Second

_THE POWER OF THE CROSS_

JOHN x. 11-18.

"I lay down my life." In that supreme sacrifice all other sacrifices turn pale. In the power of that sacrifice the blackest guilt finds forgiveness.

Its energies seek out the ruined and desolate life with glorious offer of renewal. When the Lord laid down His life the entire race found a new beginning. Our hope is born at the Cross. It is there that "the burden of our sin rolls away." In His night we find daybreak. When He said, "It is finished," our soul could sing, "Life is begun."

And so pilgrims gather at the Cross. Songs are heard there, the "sweetest ever sung by mortal tongues." And the power of the Cross never wanes. Its glorious grace reaches the soul to-day as in the earliest days. It inspires the despairing heart. It transforms the mind. It remakes the tissues of the will. There is no shattered power that the power of the Cross cannot restore. "We are complete in Him."

"In the Cross of Christ I glory, Towering o'er the wrecks of time; All the light of sacred story Gathers round its head sublime."

MARCH The Third

_PREPARING FOR THE BRIDE_

JOHN xiv. 1-14.

Our Lord has prepared a place. It is the Bridegroom "getting the house ready" for the bride. And, therefore, the preparations are not made grudgingly and with slow reluctance. Everything is of the best, and done with the swift delight of love. "Come, for all things are now ready."

And our Lord will fetch His bride to the prepared place. "I am the way."

We become so wrapt up in Him that nothing else counts. I once travelled through the Black Country with a fascinating friend, and I never saw it!

And we can become so absorbed in our glorious Bridegroom that we shall be almost oblivious of adverse circ.u.mstances which may beset us. Yes, even this is possible: "He that believeth in Me shall never see death!"

"I will receive you unto Myself." The last obscuring veil is to be rent, and we are to see Him "face to face." And that will be home, for that will be satisfaction and peace. The deepest hunger of the soul will be gratified in a glorious contentment, and we shall find that "the half hath not been told."

MARCH The Fourth

_THE GREAT COMPANION_

JOHN xiv. 15-31.

And so even the road is to have the home-feeling in it. "_I will not leave you orphans._" Yes; there is to be something of home even in the way to it. I find something of Devonshire even in Dorsetshire; Shropshire gives me a taste of Wales. My Lord will not leave me comfortless. Heaven runs over, and I find its bounty before I arrive at its gate. The "Valley of Baca" becomes "a well."

And there are to be wonderful visions to speed the pilgrim's feet. "_I will manifest Myself unto him._" At unexpected corners the glory will break! We shall be a.s.suming that we have picked up a common traveller, and suddenly we shall discover it is the Lord, for He will be made known to us "in the breaking of bread." And at many "risings" of the road, where the climbing is stiff and burdensome, we shall be inspired with many a glorious view, and we shall see "the land that is very far off."

The one condition is, that I keep His word. If I am obedient, He will appear unto me, and the humdrum road will shine with miracles of grace.

MARCH The Fifth

_THE TENT AND THE BUILDING_

2 CORINTHIANS v. 1-9.

At present we live in a tent--"_the earthly house of this tabernacle._"

And often the tent is very rickety. There are rents through which the rain enters, and it trembles ominously in the great storm. Some tents are frail from the very beginning, half-rotten when they are put up, and they have no defence even against the breeze. But even the strongest tent becomes weather-worn and threadbare, and in the long run it "falls in a heap!" And what then?

We shall exchange the frail tent for the solid house! "_If the earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of G.o.d, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens._" When we are unclothed we shall find ourselves clothed with our house which is from heaven. The glory of this transition can only be confessed by "the saints in light."

To awake, and discover that the creaking, breaking cords are left behind, that all the leakages are over, that we are no longer exposed to the cutting wind, that pain is pa.s.sed, and sickness, and death--this must be a wonder of inconceivable ecstasy!

And "absent from the body" we shall be "present with the Lord."

MARCH The Sixth

_HOME-LIFE IN G.o.d_

JOHN xvii. 20-26.

The home-life in G.o.d is to be a life of perfect union--"_I in them, and Thou in Me._" Home is only another name for union. It is the perfect fusion of life with life, the harmonizing of differences as many different notes combine to form the mystery of choral song. And so will it be in the home-land! Our manifold individualities will be retained, but we shall "fit into one another," and in the perfect harmony we shall hear the "new song" of heaven.