lief.'

It is most comforting to remember that the grand promise, 'Thy people
shall be willing in the day of Thy power,' is made by the Father to
Christ Himself. The Lord Jesus holds this promise, and God will fulfil it
to Him. He will make us willing because He has promised Jesus that He
will do so. And what is being made willing, but having our will taken and
kept?

All true surrender of the will is based upon love and knowledge of, and
confidence in, the one to whom it is surrendered. We have the human
analogy so often before our eyes, that it is the more strange we should
be so slow to own even the possibility of it as to God. Is it thought
anything so very extraordinary and high-flown, when a bride deliberately
_prefers_ wearing a colour which was not her own taste or choice, because
her husband likes to see her in it? Is it very unnatural that it is no
distress to her to do what he asks her to do, or to go with him where he
asks her to come, even without question or explanation, instead of doing
what or going where she would undoubtedly have preferred if she did not
know and love him? Is it very surprising if this lasts beyond the wedding
day, and if year after year she still finds it her greatest pleasure to
please him, quite irrespective of what _used_ to be her own ways and
likings? Yet in this case she is not helped by any promise or power on
his part to make her wish what he wishes. But He who so wonderfully
condescends to call Himself the Bridegroom of His church, and who claims
our fullest love and trust, has promised and has power to work in us to
will. Shall we not claim His promise and rely on His mighty power, and
say, not self-confidently, but looking only unto Jesus--

'Keep my will, for it is Thine;
It shall be no longer mine!'

Only in proportion as our own will is surrendered, are we able to discern
the splendour of God's will.

For oh! it is a splendour,
A glow of majesty,
A mystery of beauty
If we will only see;
A very cloud of glory
Enfolding you and me.

A splendour that is lighted
At one transcendent flame,
The wondrous Love, the perfect Love,
Our Father's sweetest name;
For His Name and very Essence
And His Will are all the same!

Conversely, in proportion as we see this splendour of His will, we shall
more readily or more fully surrender our own. Not until we have presented
our bodies a living sacrifice can we