d the stream of life sings in its progress.

In exaltation. "_In Thy righteousness shall they be exalted._" They will
be lifted up above their enemies. In elevation they will find their
safety. God lifts us above our passions, above our cares, above our little
fears and tempers, and we find our peace upon the heights.

DECEMBER The Tenth

_THE ONLY WISE BEGINNING_

"_The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom._"
--PSALM cxi.

If I want to do anything wisely I must begin with God. That is the very
alphabet of the matter. Every other beginning is a perverse beginning, and
it will end in sure disaster. "I am Alpha." Everything must take its rise
in Him, or it will plunge from folly into folly, and culminate in
confusion.

If I would be wise in my daily business I must begin all my affairs in
God. My career itself must be chosen in His presence, and in the
illumination of His most holy Spirit. And in the subsequent days nothing
must be done that is not rooted and grounded in Him.

If I would be wise as a teacher I must begin with God. I must not merely
call Him in to bless my lesson when my labour is done. The very beginnings
of my thinkings must be in Him. Our Lord will not write an appendix to a
volume about which He has never been consulted. "They who seek Me _early_
shall find Me." And so it is with the varied activities of our
multitudinous life. If we would have them shine with quiet wisdom we must
light them at the Sun of glory.

DECEMBER The Eleventh

_THE SPEECH OF THE INCARNATION_

"_He hath spoken to us in His Son._"
--HEBREWS i.

And that blessed Son spake my language. He came into my troubled
conditions and expressed Himself out of my humble lot. My surroundings
afforded Him a language in which He made known His good news. The
carpenter's shop, the shepherd on the hill, the ladened vine, a wayside
well, common bread, a friend's sickness, the desolation of a garden, the
darkness of "the last things"--these all offered Him a mode of speech in
which He unveiled to me the heart of God.

He came as the Son to make me a son. For I had made myself a slave, and
called my bondage freedom. I wore my badge of servitude with unholy pride.
But when He came and spake to me, my lost inheritance dawned upon my
wondering eyes, and I knew myself to be enslaved. But His was the glorious
mission not only to awake but to emancipate, not only to unveil lost
splendour but to recover it. He came to