ECRET DEVOTION.

Let me plunge into the midst at once, with a few simple suggestions on
SECRET DEVOTION.

LET IT BE DELIBERATE.

I ask my younger Brother, then, to keep sacred, with all his heart and
will, an unhurried time alone with the Lord, night and morning at the
least. I do not intrusively prescribe a length of time. But I do most
earnestly say that the time, shorter or longer, must be _deliberately
spent_; and even ten minutes can be spent deliberately, while
mismanagement may give a feeling of haste to a much longer season. Do
not, I beseech you, minimize the minutes; seek for such a fulness of
"the Spirit of grace and of supplications," [Zech. xii. 10.] as shall
draw you quite the other way. But if the time, any given night or
morning, _must_ be short, let it nevertheless be a time of quiet,
reverent, collected worship and confession and petition. One thing
assuredly you can do: you can, if you will, secure a real "Morning
Watch" before your day's work begins. I do not say it is easy. Young men
very commonly sleep sounder and longer than we seniors do; they are not
always easy to rouse in a moment. But they can direct some of their
energy to contrive against themselves, or rather _for_ themselves, how
to secure a regular early rising to meet their Lord. Most ingenious, not
to say amusing, are some of the devices which friends of mine have
confided to me; schemes and stratagems to get themselves well awake in
good time. But after all, in most lodging-houses surely it must be
possible to be called early, and to instruct the caller to show no mercy
at the chamber door. Anyhow, I do say that the fresh first interview
with the all-blessed Master must at all costs be secured. Do not be
beguiled into thinking it can be arranged by a half-slumbering prayer in
bed. Rise up--if but in loving deference to Him. Appear in the presence
chamber as the servant should who is now ready for the day's bondservice
in all things but in this, that he has yet to take the day's oath of
obedience, and to ask the day's "grace sufficient," and to read the
day's promises and commands, at the Master's holy feet.

A PRACTICAL SUGGESTION.

I do not recommend an unpractical physical mortification as the rule for
such early hours with God. Fully believing that there is a place for
definite "abstinence" in the Christian (and certainly in the
ministerial) life, I do not think that that place is, as a rule, the
early morning hour. Very many