heery light through the cold road of
acknowledged guilt and sin.

"If we confess our sins He is just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness."

SEPTEMBER The Eleventh

_A FATAL DIVORCE_

"_They feared the Lord, and served their own gods._"
--2 KINGS xvii. 24-34.

And that is an old-world record, but it is quite a modern experience. The
kinsmen of these ancient people are found in our own time. Men still fear
one God and serve another.

But something is vitally wrong when men can divorce their fear from their
obedience. And the beginning of the wrong is in the fear itself. "Fear,"
as used in this passage, is a counterfeit coin, which does not ring true
to the truth. It means only the payment of outward respect, a formal
recognition, a passing nod which we give on the way to something better.
It is a mere skin courtesy behind which there is no beating heart; a
hollow convention in which there is no deep and sacred awe.

But the real "fear of God" is a spiritual mood in which virtue thrives, an
atmosphere in which holy living is quite inevitable. "The fear of the Lord
is _clean_." It is not lip-worship, but heart-homage, a reverence in which
the soul is always found upon its knees. And so "the fear of the Lord is
to hate evil"; it is an indignant repulsion from all that is hateful to
God. It is the sharing of the Spirit of the Lord. There cannot be any true
fear where the soul does not worship "in spirit and in truth."

SEPTEMBER The Twelfth

_THE GARMENTS OF THE SOUL_

JOEL ii. 12-19.

I am so apt to think that the rending of an outer garment is a token of
true penitence and amendment of life. But it is the inner garments I must
deal with, the raiments and habits of the soul. Some of these robes--such
as vanity and pride--are as gay and showy as a peacock; others are dirty
and leprous, and we should not dare to bring them to the door, and display
them in the light. But all need severe treatment; they must be torn, fibre
from fibre, and reduced to rags.

But "rending" must be accompanied by "turning." "_Turn unto the Lord your
God._" For the Lord our God is gracious, and His love will not only
provide a new wardrobe, but a swift furnace in which to burn the remnants
of the old. Yes, His "great kindness" will burn away the filth of my
alienation, and will "bring forth the best robe" and put it on me. The
good Lord will give me new habits. He will "cover me with the r