ord prepared the worm;' 'not _my_ will, but _Thy_ will!'"

Oh, how does the stricken soul honor God by thus being _dumb_ in the
midst of dark and perplexing dealings, recognizing in these, part of the
needed discipline and training for a sorrowless, sinless, deathless
world; regarding every trial as a link in the chain which draws it to
heaven, where the whitest robes will be found to be those here baptized
with suffering, and bathed in tears!

"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."

Third Day.

DEVOTEDNESS TO GOD.

"Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"--
Luke, ii. 49.

"My meat and my drink are to do the will of Him that sent me, and to
finish His work." That _one_ object brought Jesus from heaven--that
_one_ object he pursued with unflinching, undeviating constancy, until
He could say, "It is finished."

However short man comes of _his_ "chief end," "Glory to God in the
highest" was the motive, the rule, and exponent of every act of that
wondrous life. With us, the magnet of the soul, even when truest, is
ever subject to partial oscillations and depressions, trembling at times
away from its great attraction-point. _His_ never knew one tremulous
wavering from its all-glorious center. With Him there were no ebbs and
flows, no fits and starts. He could say, in the words of that prophetic
psalm which speaks so preeminently of Himself, "I have set the Lord
_always_ before me!"

Reader! do you feel that in some feeble measure this lofty life-motto of
the sinless Son of God is written on your home and heart, regulating
your actions, chastening your joys, quickening your hopes, giving energy
and direction to your whole being, subordinating all the affections of
your nature to their high destiny? With pure and unalloyed motives, with
a single eye, and a single aim, can you say, somewhat in the spirit of
His brightest follower, "This _one_ thing I do"? Are you ready to regard
all you have--rank, name, talents, riches, influence,
distinctions--valuable, only so far as they contribute to promote the
glory of Him who is "first and last, and all in all"? Seek to feel that
your heavenly Father's is not only _a_ business; but _the_ business of
life. "Whose I am, and whom I serve,"--let this be the superscription
written on your thoughts and deeds, your employments and enjoyments,
your sleeping and waking. Be not, as the fixed stars, cold and distant;
but be ever bathing in the