sensitive rose or lily.

Speak to the Rock, do not strike it. Believe in the Holy Ghost and treat
Him with the tenderest confidence and the most unwavering trust, and He
will meet you with instant response and confidence.

Beloved, have you come to the rock in Kadesh? Have you opened all your
being to the fulness of the Spirit, and then, with the confidence of the
child to the mother, the bride to the husband, the flower to the sunshine,
have you received by faith, and are you drinking of His blessed life?

AUGUST 18.

"The three hundred blew the trumpets" (Judges vii. 22).

We little dream, sometimes, what a hasty word, a thoughtless speech, an
imprudent act, or a confession of unbelief and fear may do to hinder our
highest usefulness, or turn it aside from some great opportunity which God
has been preparing for us.

Although the Holy Ghost uses weak men, He does not want them to be weak
after He chooses and calls them. Although He uses the foolish things to
confound the wise, He does not want us to be foolish after He comes to
give us His wisdom and grace. He uses the foolishness of preaching, but,
not necessarily, the foolishness of preachers. Like the electric current,
which can supply the strength of a thousand men, it is necessary that it
should have a proper conductor, and a very small wire is better than a
very big rope.

God wants fit instruments for His power--wills surrendered, hearts
trusting, lives consistent, and lips obedient to His will; and then He can
use the weakest weapons, and make them mighty through God to the pulling
down of strongholds.

AUGUST 19.

"Have faith in God" (Mark xi. 22).

He requires of us a perfect faith, and He tells us that if we believe and
doubt not, we shall have whatsoever we ask. The faintest touch of unbelief
will neutralize our trust.

But how shall we have such perfect faith? Is it possible for human nature?
Nay, but it is possible to the Divine nature, it is possible to the Christ
within us. It is possible for God to give it; and God does give it. But
Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith, and He bids us have the
faith of God, and as we have it through the imparting of the Spirit of
Christ, we believe even as He.

We pray in His name, and in His very nature, and we live by the faith of
the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. The love that He
requires of us is not mere human love, nor even the standard of love
requi