the joy of the reunited family, nothing of the gracious ministry of the
Lord! "Darkness had blinded their eyes."

And it is also the nemesis of bigotry to be bitter, cruel, and violent.
They sought to kill the Giver of life!

It is the ministry of light to ripen and sweeten the dispositions. "The
fruit of the light is in all goodness." It is the ministry of the darkness
to make men sour and unsympathetic, and revengeful, and to so pervert the
heart as to make it a minister of poison and death.

And yet, how powerless is bigotry in the long run! It can no more stay the
progress of the Kingdom than King Canute could check the flowing tide!
Bigotry slew the Lord, and He rose again! And so it ever is. "Truth
crushed to earth shall rise again; the eternal years of God are hers."

MARCH The Seventeenth

_THE COMMONPLACE OF DEATH_

LUKE vii. 11-18.

Death is never a commonplace. We never become so accustomed to funerals as
not to see them. Everybody sees the mournful procession go along the
street. A momentary awe steals over the flippant thought, and for one
brief season the superficial opens into the infinite abyss.

And yet, while a thousand are arrested, only a few are compassionate.
There can be awe without pity; there can be interest without service. When
this humble funeral train trudged out of the city of Nain our Lord halted,
and His heart melted! There was an "aching void," and He longed to fill
it. There was a bleeding, broken heart, and He yearned to stand and heal
it. He found His own joy in removing another's tears, His own satisfaction
in another's peace.

"_The Lord hath visited His people!_" That is what the people said, and I
do not wonder at the saying! And let me, too, be a humble visitor in the
troubled ways of men! Let my heart be a well of sweet compassion to all
the sons and daughters of grief! Like Barnabas, let me be "a son of
consolation."

MARCH The Eighteenth

_SERENITY IN THE TEMPEST_

JOB xix. 23-27.

Perhaps I am akin to Job in having experienced the pressure of calamity. I
have felt the shock of adverse circumstances, and the house of my life has
trembled in the convulsion. Or death has been to my door and has returned
again and again, and every time he has left me weeping! All God's billows
have gone over me! Verily, I can take my place by the patriarch Job.

But can I share his witness, "_I know that my Redeemer liveth_"? Have I a
calm assurance that my ruler