vine and the branches, it is not necessary to explain;
only the branches and the vine are one. The vine does not say, I am the
central trunk running up and you are the little branches; but I am the
whole thing, and you are the whole thing. He counts us partakers of His
nature. "Apart from Me ye can do nothing." The husband and the wife, and
many more figures contribute to this marvelous Christ teaching, which has
no parallel, no precedent in any other teaching under the sun; that Christ
is the life of His people, and that we are absolutely linked with and
dependent upon Him. All other systems teach how much man is and may
become. Christianity shows how a man must lose all he is if he would come
into full unity with Christ in His life.

Lord, help me this day to abide in Thee.

Oh! what a wonderful place
Jesus has given to me!
Saved by His glorious grace,
I may be even as He.

DECEMBER 14.

"Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree" (Isa. lv. 13).

Difficulties and obstacles are God's challenges to faith. When hindrances
confront us in the path of duty we are to recognize them as vessels for
faith to fill with the fulness and all-sufficiency of Jesus, and as we go
forward, simply and fully trusting Him, we may be tested, we may have to
wait and let patience have her perfect work, but we shall surely find at
last the stone rolled away, and the Lord waiting to render unto us double
for our time of testing, and fulfil the promise, "Instead of the thorn
shall come up the fir tree, instead of the brier the myrtle tree, and it
shall be to the Lord for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

Oft there comes a wondrous message
When my hopes are growing dim;
I can hear it through the darkness,
Like some sweet and far-off hymn.
Nothing is too hard for Jesus,
No man can work like Him.

When my way is closed in darkness
And my foes are fierce and grim,
Still it sings above the conflict
Like some glad, victorious hymn:
Nothing is too hard for Jesus,
No man can work like Him.

DECEMBER 15.

"When my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the Rock that is higher than I"
(Ps. lxi. 2).

The end of self is the beginning of God. "When the tale of bricks is
doubled then comes Moses." That is the old Hebrew way of putting it.
"Man's extremity is God's opportunity." That is the proverbial expression
of it. "When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher
than I.