not to count heads, but to weigh and estimate causes.
Which of the causes provides a tent for the Lord of Hosts? Where has the
truth its waving flag? Stand near that flag, my soul, and thou wilt be
near thy Lord! And nothing shall separate thee from His love, and leave
thee weak and isolated on the field. Thou shalt be "more than conqueror"
in Him who loves thee, and will love thee for evermore.

AUGUST The Second

_BY JACOB'S WELL_

JOHN iv. 1-15.

A weary woman and a weary Lord! But the Lord was only weary in body; the
woman was dry and exhausted in soul. Her heart was like some charred
chamber after a destructive fire. All its furniture was injured, and some
of it was almost burnt away. For sin had been blazing in the secret place,
and had scorched the delicacies of the spirit, and the inward satisfaction
was gone. And now she was very weary, and her daily walk had become a most
tiresome march.

And the Lord, with sympathetic insight, discerned the inward dryness.
There was no sound of holy contentment, no melody of joyful, spiritual
desire. There was only the cold, clammy silence of death. "He knew what
was in man." And there was no "river of water of life" making glad the
streets of this woman's soul.

And so He would bring to her the waters of spiritual satisfaction, the
holy well of eternal life. "In the wilderness shall waters break out, and
springs in the desert." The Lord is about to work a miracle of grace,
changing dull pang into healing peace, and suffocated desire into soaring
fellowship with God. He is about to transform an outlawed woman into one
of the "elect saints." How will He do it? Let us watch Him.

AUGUST The Third

_CHANGING ASKING INTO THIRSTING_

"_Go, call thy husband!_"
--JOHN iv. 16-30.

I never supposed that the transformation would begin here. I thought that
there were some words which would remain unspoken. But here our Master
speaks a word which only deepens the weariness of the woman, and irritates
the sore of her galling yoke. What is He doing?

He is seeking to change the sense of wretchedness into the sense of sin!
He is seeking to change weariness into desire! _He wants to make the woman
thirst!_ And so He puts His finger upon her sin. He cannot give the
heavenly water to lips that merely ask for it. "Sir, give me this water!"
No, it cannot be had for the asking, only for the thirsting! And so the
gracious Lord turns the woman's eyes upon her own sinfu