all, Watch!"

But in Christ the old serpent is dead! Christ "became sin," and in Him sin
was crucified. The thing that bit is bitten, and its nefarious power
destroyed. But out of Christ the serpent is still busy and malicious,
claiming what he presumes to call his own.

Let me, then, dwell in Christ, where sin "has no more dominion."
"Whosoever believeth shall not perish but have life."

JULY The Thirty-first

_THE CLEAN FLAME OF LOVE_

1 JOHN iv. 4-14.

This aged apostle cannot get away from the counsels of love. All his
mental movements circle about this "greatest thing in the world." Once he
would "call down fire upon men"; now the only fire he knows is the pure
and genial flame of love. Beautiful is it when our fires become cleaner as
we get older, when temper changes to compassion, when malice becomes
goodwill, when an ill-controlled conflagration becomes a homely fireside.

And all the love we acquire we must get from the altars of God. "We love
because He first loved us." We can find it nowhere else. "Love is of God."
Why, then, not seek it in the right place? Why seek for palms in arctic
regions, or for icebergs in the tropics? God is the country of love, and
in His deep mines there are riches "unsearchable."

And the gracious law of life is this, that every acquisition of love
increases our powers of discernment. "He that loveth knoweth...!" It is as
though every jewel we find gives us an extra lens for the discovery of
finer jewels still. And thus the love-life is a continual surprise, and
the surprise will be eternal, for the object of the wonder is the infinite
love of God.

AUGUST The First

_GOD AS OUR ALLY!_

ROMANS viii. 31-39.

"If God is for us!" But we must make sure of that. Is God on the field,
taking sides with us? Have we been so busy with our preparations, so
concerned with many things, and everybody, that we have forgotten our
greatest possible Ally? Is He on the field, and on which side! My soul, go
on thy knees, and settle this in secret. That purpose of thine! That
choice of thine! That work of thine! Is it hallowed with thy Lord's
approval and seal?

And "if God is for us, who can be against us?" Nothing else counts. It is
ever a foolish and futile thing to count the heads in the opposing ranks.
"God is always on the side of the big battalions!" It is a black lie of
the devil! We need not fear the big battalions if only we are securely in
the right. We are