T_

DEUTERONOMY xi. 18-25.

If we wish to retain "the word of the Lord" everything depends upon where
we keep it. If we just keep it in the mind, a leaky memory may waste the
treasure. A Chinese convert declared that he found the best way to
remember the word was to do it! The engraved word became character,
written upon the fleshy tables of the heart. He incarnated the word, and
it became a vital part of his own personality. He lived it and it lived in
him. The word became flesh. This is the only really vital "way of
remembrance," to convert the word into the primary stuff of the life.

There is a secondary way by which we may help our apprehension of God's
word. "Ye shall teach them." Our hold upon a truth is increased while we
impart it to others. The gospel becomes more vivid as we proclaim it to
our fellow-men. We see it while we explain it. It grips us the more firmly
as we use it to grip our children. This is a great law in life. In these
matters it is literally true that memory best retains what she gives away.
A truth that is never shared is never really possessed. The word that we
teach becomes rooted in our own mind.

MAY The Ninth

_LOVING THE LORD_

LUKE x. 21-28.

The secret of life is to love the Lord our God, and our neighbours as
ourselves. But how are we to love the Lord? We cannot manufacture love. We
cannot love to order. We cannot by an act of will command its appearing.
No, not in these ways is love created. Love is not a work, it is a fruit.
It grows in suitable soils, and it is our part to prepare the soils. When
the conditions are congenial, love appears, just as the crocus and the
snowdrop appear in the congenial air of the spring.

What, then, can we do? We can seek the Lord's society. We can think about
Him. We can read about Him. We can fill our imaginations with the grace of
His life and service. We can be much with Him, talking to Him in prayer,
singing to Him in praise, telling Him our yearnings and confessing to Him
our defeats. And love will be quietly born. For this is how love is born
between heart and heart. Two people are "much together," and love is born!
And when we are much with the Lord, we are with One who already loves us
with an everlasting love. We are with One who yearns for our love and who
seeks in every way to win it. "We love Him because He first loved us." And
when we truly love God, every other kind of holy love will follow. Given
the fountain, the