strength on
all the time. Out in the Middle West they have a way of making the
cattle pump their own water by a sort of platform, which the weight of
an animal will press down, and the water is forced up into a trough.
Sometimes a blase old ox who sees the younger and lighter steers doing
this, feels that he with his superior experience and weight will only
have to put one foot on to bring up the water, but he finds that one
foot won't do, or even two. He has to get right on, and give to it his
full weight. It takes the whole ox, horns, hoofs and tail. That's the
way it is in religion--by which we mean the service of God and man. It
takes you--all the time; and the reward is work, and peace, and a
satisfaction in your work that passeth all understanding. No more
grinding fear, no more "bad days," no more wishing to die, no more
nervous prostration. Just work and peace!

Did you ever have to keep house when your mother went away, when you
did not know very well how to do things, and every meal sat like a
weight on your young heart, and the fear was ever present with you that
the bread would go sour or the house burn down, or burglars would come,
or someone would take sick? The days were like years as they slowly
crawled around the face of the old clock on the kitchen shelf, and even
at night you could not forget the awful burden of responsibility.

But one day, one glorious day she came home, and the very minute you
heard her step on the floor, the burden was lifted. Your work was very
much the same, but the responsibility was gone, and cheerfulness came
back to your eyes, and smiles to your face.

That is what it feels like when you "get religion." The worry and
burden of life is gone. Somebody else has the responsibility and you
work with a light heart. It is the responsibility of life that kills
us, the worry, fear, uncertainty, and anxiety. How we envy the man who
works by the day, just does his little bit, and has no care! This
immunity from care may be ours if we link ourselves with God.

Think of Moses' mother! There she was hired to take care of her own
son. Doing the very thing she loved to do all week and getting her pay
envelope every Saturday night. So may we. God hires us to do our work
for Him, and pays us as we go along--the only stipulation being that we
do our best.

"I have shown thee, O man, what is good!" declared Micah long ago.
"What doth now the Lord require of thee, but to d