One of the greatest enemies to faith is indolence. It is much easier to
lie and suffer than to rise and overcome; much easier to go to sleep on a
snowbank and never wake again, than to rouse one's self and shake off the
lethargy and overcome the stupor. Faith is an energetic art; prayer is
intense labor; the effectual working prayer of the righteous man availeth
much.

Satan tries to put us to sleep, as he did the disciples in the garden; but
let us not sleep as do others, but let us wake and be sober, continuing in
prayer and watching therein with all perseverance, stirring up ourselves
to take hold of His strength, "not slothful, but followers of them, who,
through patience, inherit the promise." It is the wind that carries the
ship across the waves; but the wind is powerless unless the hand of the
boatman is held firmly upon the rudder, and that rudder is set hard
against the wind. In like manner we hold the rudder, God fills the sails.
It is not the rudder that carries the ship; but it is the rudder which
catches the wind that carries the ship, so God keeps us in perfect peace
while we are stayed upon Him.

NOVEMBER 24.

"I can do all things through Christ" (Phil. iv. 13).

A dear sister said one day: "I have so much work to do that I have not
time to get strength to do it by waiting on the Lord." Surely that was
making bricks without straw, and even if it was the name of the Lord and
the church, it was the devil's bondage. God sends not His servants on
their own charges; but "He is able to make all grace abound towards us,
that we, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto
every good work." The old story of the chieftain, fleeing from his foes
and almost overtaken, but stopping in the midst of his flight to get a
shoe upon his horse that he might fly more successfully is a true type and
lesson for Christian workers.

The old Latin motto _festina lente_, "make haste slowly," has a great
lesson for us. The more work we have to do, the more frequently we have to
drop our head upon our desk and wait a little for heavenly aid and love,
and then press on with new strength. One hour baptized in the love of the
Holy Ghost is worth ten battling against wind and tide without the
heavenly life.

NOVEMBER 25.

"Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come" (I. Cor. iv. 5).

Nothing will more effectually arrest the working of the Spirit in the
heart than the spirit of cri