order that we may take a firmer hold. We give up, in order
that we may more fully receive. We lay our Isaac on Mount Moriah, and we
ask him back, no longer our Isaac, but God's Isaac, and infinitely more
secure, because given back in the resurrection life.

JULY 29.

"My helpers in Christ Jesus" (Rom. xvi. 3).

Christ's Church is overrun with captains. She is in great need of a few
more privates. A few rivers run into the sea, but a larger number run into
other rivers. We cannot all be pioneers, but we can all be helpers, and no
man is fitted to go in the front until he has learned well how to go
second.

A spirit of self-importance is fatal to all work for Christ. The biggest
enemy of true spiritual power is spiritual self-consciousness. Joshua must
die before Jericho can fall.

God often has to test His chosen servants by putting them in a subordinate
place before He can bring them to the front. Joseph must learn to serve in
the kitchen and to suffer in prison before he can rise to the throne, and
as soon as Joseph is ready for the throne, the throne is always waiting
for Joseph. God has more places than accepted candidates. Let us not be
afraid to go into the training class, and even take the lowest place, for
we shall soon go up, if we really deserve to. Lord, use me so that Thou
shalt be glorified and I shall be hid from myself and others.

JULY 30.

"If thou wilt diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God and
wilt keep all His statutes" (Ex. xv. 26).

Sometimes people fail because they have not confidence in the Physician.
The very first requirement of this Doctor is, that you trust Him, and
trust Him implicitly, so implicitly that you go forward on His bare word,
and act as if you had received His healing the moment you claimed His
promise. But no one would expect to be healed by an earthly doctor as soon
as they obeyed his directions.

You must do what the Great Physician tells you, if you expect Him to make
you whole.

You cannot expect to be healed if you are living in sin, any more than you
could expect the best physician to cure you while you lived in a malarial
climate and inhaled poison with every breath. So you must get up into the
pure air of trust and obedience before Christ can make you whole. And
then, if you will trust Him, and attend to His directions, you will find
that there is balm in Gilead, and that there is a Great Physician there.

JULY 31.