s men live," and therefore of these
things will I make my balance-sheet and reckon up my gains.

SEPTEMBER The First

_THE VIRTUE OF PROPORTION_

MATTHEW vi. 25-34.

I must put first things first. The radical fault in much of my living is
want of proportion. I think more of pretty window curtains than of fresh
air, more of "nice" wallpaper than of the moving pageant of the skies. I
magnify the immediate desire and minimize the ultimate goal. And so
"things do not come right!" How can they when the apportionment is so
perverse, when everything is topsy-turvy? If I want things to be firm and
durable I must revere the Divine order, and must put first things first.
"_Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness._"

And, therefore, I must seek holiness before success. I am to esteem
holiness with apparent failure as infinitely better than success with
stain and shame.

I must seek character before reputation. The applause of the world must be
as nothing compared with the approbation of God. The favouring "voice from
heaven" must be sweeter to my ears than the noisy cheers of the crowd.

And I must seek righteousness before quietness. The way of disturbance is
sometimes the way to peace. I must not be so concerned for a quiet life as
for a life that is "right with God."

SEPTEMBER The Second

_PRAYER AND REVOLUTION_

JOHN iv. 43-54.

This miracle began in a prayer. The nobleman went unto Jesus "_and
besought Him_." In such apparently fragile things can mighty revolutions
be born! "Prayer," said Tennyson, "opens the sluice-gates between us and
the Infinite." It brings the frail wire into contact with the battery. It
links together man and God.

Prayer was corroborated by belief. "_The man believed the word that Jesus
spake unto him._" By our faith we cut the channels along which the healing
energy will flow. Faith "prepares the way of the Lord." Our faith is
purposed to be a fellow-laborer with grace, and, if faith be absent, grace
"can do no mighty works."

The healing begins with the faith. "_It was at the same hour in which ...
he himself believed._" These "coincidences" are inevitable happenings in
the realm of the Spirit. When we offer the believing prayer, God's mighty
energies begin to besiege the life for which the prayer is made. Mr.
Cornaby, the Methodist missionary, declares how conscious he is in
far-away China when someone is interceding for him in the home-land! The
powe