r possesses him in vitalizing flood! Hudson Taylor's mother shuts
herself in a little room to pray, and eighty miles away her son is
converted.

SEPTEMBER The Third

_MY SHARE IN THE MIRACLE_

JOHN ii. 1-11.

Our Lord always demands our best. He will not work with our second-best.
His gracious "extra" is given when our own resources are exhausted. We
must do our best before our Master will do His miracle. We must "fill the
water-pots with water"! We must bring "the five loaves and two fishes"! We
must "let down the net"! We must be willing "to be made whole," and we
must make the effort to rise! Yes, the Lord will have my best.

Our Lord transforms our best into His better. He changes water into wine.
He turns the handful of seed into a harvest. Our aspirations become
inspirations. Our willings become magnetic with the mystic power of grace.
Our bread becomes sacramental, and He Himself is revealed to us at the
feast. Our ordinary converse becomes a Divine fellowship, and "our hearts
burn within us" as He talks to us by the way.

And our Lord ever keeps His best wine until the last. "Greater things than
these shall ye do!" "I will see you again," and there shall be grander
transformations still! "The best is yet to be." "Dreams cannot picture a
world so fair." "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered
into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for
them that love Him."

SEPTEMBER The Fourth

_A PORTRAIT OF A GREAT SUPPLIANT_

MATTHEW viii. 5-13.

Here we have _the grace of sympathy_; one man troubled about the sickness
of another. We are drawing very near to the Lord when our soul vibrates
responsively to another man's need. We can measure our likeness to the
Lord by the range of our sensitiveness to the world's sorrow and pain. Our
God is the "Father of _pities_"; He is sensitive in every direction, no
side is numb, and we are putting on His likeness in proportion as we
attain an all-round responsiveness to the cries of human need.

And here we have _the grace of humility_. "I am not worthy!" Our pride
always blocks "the way of the Lord." Our humility makes us porous to the
Divine. The "poor in spirit" are already in the kingdom, and the gracious
powers of the kingdom are commanded to attend their bidding.

And here we have _the grace of faith_. "Only say the word!" The centurion
conceives the Lord's words as soldiers attending on the Lord's will.