=July 11th.=

_Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. 2 Pet. i. 5._

You will find it less easy to unroot faults than to choke them by gaining virtues. Do not think of your faults, still less of others'

faults; in every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong; honor that; rejoice in it, and, as you can, try to imitate it; and your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.--_John Ruskin._

=July 12th.=

_Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Song of Sol. iv. 16._

Sometimes G.o.d sends severe blasts of trial upon His children to develop their graces. Just as torches burn most brightly when swung violently to and fro; just as the juniper plant smells sweetest when flung into the flames; so the richest qualities of a Christian often come out under the north wind of suffering and adversity. Bruised hearts often emit the fragrance that G.o.d loveth to smell. Almost every true believer's experience contains the record of trials which were sent for the purpose of shaking the spice tree.--_Theodore Cuyler._

=July 13th.=

_Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Song of Sol. iv. 16._

There are two winds mentioned in this beautiful prayer. G.o.d may send either or both, as seemeth Him good. He may send the north wind of conviction, to bring us to repentance, or He may send the south wind of love, to melt us into grat.i.tude and holy joy. If we often require the sharp blasts of trial to develop our graces, do we not also need the warm south breezes of His mercy? Do we not need the new sense of Christ's presence in our hearts and the joys of the Holy Ghost? Do we not need to be melted, yes, to be overpowered by the love of Jesus?--_Theodore Cuyler._

=July 14th.=

_Behold the man! John xix. 5._

"Behold the man!" was Pilate's jeer. That is what all the ages have been doing since, and the vision has grown more and more glorious. As they have looked, the crown of thorns has become a crown of golden radiance, and the cast-off robe has glistened like the garments He wore on the night of the transfiguration. Martyrs have smiled in the flames at that vision. Sinners have turned at it to a new life. Little children have seen it, and have had awakened by it dim recollections of their heaven-home. Toward it the souls of men yearn ever.--_Robert E. Speer._

=July 15th.=

_He (John) saith, Behold the Lamb of G.o.d! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

John i. 36, 37._

To be a Christian means to know the presence of a true personal Christ among us, and to follow.--_Phillips Brooks._

=July 16th.=

_Ye shall not eat of it. Gen. iii. 3._

The Sin of Paradise was eating the tree of knowledge before the tree of life. Life must ever be first. Knowing and not being, hearing and not doing, admiring and not possessing, all are light without life.--_Selected._

=July 17th.=

_Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James i. 4._

Are you where G.o.d would have you be? If not, come out, and at once, for you certainly ought not to be there. If you are, then be afraid to complain of circ.u.mstances which G.o.d has ordained on purpose to work out in you the very image and likeness of His Son.--_Mark Guy Pea.r.s.e._

=July 18th.=

_Sow beside all waters. Isa. x.x.xii. 20._

Never mind whereabouts your work is. Never mind whether it be visible or not. Never mind whether your name is a.s.sociated with it. You may never see the issues of your toils. You are working for eternity. If you cannot see results here in the hot working day, the cool evening hours are drawing near, when you may rest from your labors and then they will follow you. So do your duty, and trust G.o.d to give the seed you sow "a body as it hath pleased Him,"--_Alex. McLaren._

=July 19th.=

_Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe. Psa. cxix.

117._

Do not spoil the chime of this morning's bells by ringing one half a peal! Do not say, "Hold thou me up," and stop there, or add, "But all the same I shall stumble and fall!" Finish the peal with G.o.d's own music, the bright words of faith that He puts into your mouth: "Hold thou me up, _and I shall be safe!_"--_Frances Ridley Havergal._

=July 20th.=

_Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy.

Matt. viii. 6._

We, in this age of the church, are in the position of that sick servant at Capernaum. To the eye of sense we are separated from the Savior. We see Him not--we can touch Him not--the hand cannot steal amid the crowd to catch His garment hem--we cannot hear His loved footsteps as of old on our threshold; but faith penetrates the invisible; the messenger--prayer--meets Him in the streets of the New Jerusalem; and faith and prayer together, the twin delegates from His church below, He has never yet sent empty away.--_Macduff._

=July 21st.=

_Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it is G.o.d which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Phil. ii. 12, 13._

What a staggering weight of thought is excited by these words! Stay, my soul, and wonder that the Eternal G.o.d should stoop to work within thy narrow limits. Is it not a marvel indeed, that He, whom the heavens cannot contain, and in whose sight they are not clean, should trouble Himself to work on such material, so unpromising, and amidst circ.u.mstances so uncongenial?

How careful should we be to make Him welcome, and to throw no hindrance in His way! How eager to garner up all the least movements of His gracious operation, as the machinist conserves the force of his engine; and as the goldsmith, with miserly care, collects every flake of gold leaf! Surely we shall be sensible of the _fear_ of holy reverence and the _trembling_ of eager anxiety; as we "work out," into daily act and life, all that G.o.d our Father is "working in."--_F. B. Meyer._

=July 22nd.=

_. . . Sinners of whom I am chief. . . . Now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise G.o.d, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Tim. i.

15, 17._

Only those who have struck the deepest note of penitence can reach the highest note of praise.--_A. J. Gordon._

=July 23rd.=

_Blessed is the man . . . that keepeth the Sabbath. Isa.

lvi. 2._

The Sabbath is the savings-bank of human life, into which we deposit one day in seven to be repaid in the autumn of life with compound interest.--_Selected._

=July 24th.=