furrow will be an arrow speeding to its course.

This has been a great lesson to us in our Christian life. If we would run
a straight course, we find that we must have two stakes, the near and the
distant. It is not enough to be living in the present, but it is a great
and glorious thing to have a distant goal, a definite object, a clear
purpose before us for which we are living, and unto which we are shaping
our present.

APRIL 27.

"The sweetness of the lips" (Prov. xvi. 21).

Spiritual conditions are inseparably connected with our physical life. The
flow of the divine life-currents may be interrupted by a little clot of
blood; the vital current may leak out through a very trifling wound.

If you want to keep the health of Christ, keep from all spiritual sores,
from all heart wounds and irritations. One hour of fretting will wear out
more vitality than a week of work; and one minute of malignity, or
rankling jealousy or envy will hurt more than a drink of poison. Sweetness
of spirit and joyousness of heart are essential to full health. Quietness
of spirit, gentleness, tranquility, and the peace of God that passes all
understanding, are worth all the sleeping draughts in the country.

We do not wonder that some people have poor health when we hear them talk
for half an hour. They have enough dislikes, prejudices, doubts, and fears
to exhaust the strongest constitution.

Beloved, if you would keep God's life and strength, keep out the things
that kill it; keep it for Him, and for His work, and you will find enough
and to spare.

APRIL 28.

"For it is God which worketh in you" (Phil. ii. 13).

Sanctification is the gift of the Holy Ghost, the fruit of the Spirit, the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the prepared inheritance of all who enter
in, the greatest obtainment of faith, not the attainment of works. It is
divine holiness, not human self-improvement, nor perfection. It is the
inflow into man's being of the life and purity of the infinite, eternal
and Holy One, bringing His own perfection and working out His own will.
How easy, how spontaneous, how delightful this heavenly way of holiness!
Surely it is a "highway" and not the low way of man's vain and fruitless
mortification.

It is God's great elevated railway, sweeping over the heads of the
struggling throngs who toil along the lower pavement when they might be
borne along on His ascension pathway, by His own almighty impulse. It is