them.
And just because the church won't sue you, you are going to break the
promise that you have made, not simply to men, but to God.

And what have you done with your church vows? You have promised to
renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the
world. Have you kept your vow? You have promised to obediently keep
God's holy will and commandments. Have you been honest with God in
this matter? You have promised to be subject to the rules of the
church and to attend upon its services, and some of you have trampled
on those rules flagrantly, openly, knowingly. And remember that when
you took that vow it was not a pledge that you made to me. You opened
your mouth that day unto the Lord.

And you that are here outside the church, may the lord help you to pay
your vows unto the Most High. For there is hardly a single one of you
but that at some time has opened your mouth unto the Lord. What about
that promise you made to God when you were sick? I do not say you made
it into any human ear, but you breathed it in prayer into His ear.
What about the promise you made to God by the coffin of your baby?
What about the promise of consecration you made by the bedside of your
dying mother? May the Lord help us to make this day a pay day. May
the Lord give us the courage to say, "I have opened my mouth unto the
Lord, and I cannot go back."

X

A CASE OF BLUES--ELIJAH

_1 Kings 19:4_

One day you were reading in the New Testament and you came to that
surprising word from James: "Elijah was a man subject to like passions
as we are." And if you were reading thoughtfully you stared at that
sentence in wide-eyed amazement. And then in your heart you said, "It
isn't true. Elijah's story doesn't read a bit like mine."

Then you thought of how he came and put his finger in Ahab's face and
made that face go white. You thought of how he carried Heaven's key in
his pocket for three years and six months. You thought of his lifting
the dead boy into life; of his victory on Carmel; of his quiet walk to
the little station beyond the Jordan where the Heavenly Limited met him
and took him home. And again you felt like saying that James was
altogether mistaken.

To fortify yourself more fully you reread his story. Then you came to
this passage and you read it with a gasp: "And he came and sat down
under a juniper tree," etc. And down by the print of your foot you saw
the big footprint of the