dly, glorying in the insult or the oversight, because thereby
counted worthy to suffer with Christ--that is victory.

When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your
taste offended, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and
you take it all in patient, loving silence--that is victory.

When you are content with any food, any raiment, any climate, any
society, any solitude, any interruption by the will of God--that is
victory.

When you can lovingly and patiently bear with any disorder, any
irregularity, any unpunctuality, or any annoyance--that is victory.

When you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance,
spiritual insensibility, and endure it all as Jesus endured it--that is
victory.

When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or to record
your own good works, or to itch after commendation, when you can truly
love to be unknown--that is victory.

When, like Paul, you can throw all your suffering on Jesus, thus
converting it into a means of knowing his overcoming grace, and can say
from a surrendered heart, "Most gladly," therefore, do "I take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in
distresses, for Christ's sake"--that is victory. 2 Cor. 12:7-11.

When death and life are both alike to you through Christ, and to do his
perfect will, you delight not more in one than the other--that is
victory, for, through him, you may become able to say, "Christ shall be
magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death." Phil. 1:20.
"Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Cor. 15:54.

The perfect victory is to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" and thus to
triumph over one's self. Rom. 13:14.

"In all things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."
Rom. 8:37.

THE FIRST LOVE.

You may wonder why we write so much about love. It is for the very best
reason in the world. Nothing is so great as love, and no way so
excellent. It is difficult to bind people together where love is
lacking. A religious people may resolve to live in peace and confidence
with one another; but this they will find to be very difficult if there
is a deficiency of love. Love solves the problem; it removes every
difficulty, and is the perfect bond of union. Nothing can separate
hearts that are full of love. Love must be suppressed before division
can be admitted. The most earnest exhortations and entreaties and the
strongest reprovings