sunshine of conscious nearness to Him who is
the sun and center of all happiness and joy.

Each has some appointed work to perform, some little niche in the
spiritual temple to occupy. Yours may be no splendid services, no
flaming or brilliant actions to blaze and dazzle in the eye of man. It
may be the quiet, unobtrusive inner work, the secret prayer, the
mortified sin, the forgiven injury, the trifling act of self-sacrifice
for God's glory and the good of others, of which no eye but the Eye
which seeth in secret is cognizant. It matters not how _small_.
Remember, with Him, motive dignifies action. It is not _what_ we do, but
_how_ we do it. He can be glorified in _little_ things as well as
_great_ things, and by nothing more than the daily walk, the daily
life.

Beware of any thing that would interfere with a surrender of heart and
soul to His service--worldly entanglements, indulged sin, an uneven
walk, a divided heart, nestling in creature comforts, shrinking from the
cross. How many hazard, if they do not make shipwreck, of their eternal
hopes by becoming _idlers_ in the vineyard; lingerers, like Lot;
world-lovers, like Demas; "do-nothing Christians," like the inhabitants
of Meroz! The command is, "Go, work!" _Words_ tell what you _should_ be;
_deeds_ tell what you _are_. Let those around you see there is a reality
in walking _with_ God, and working _for_ God!

"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."

Fourth Day.

FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they
do."--Luke, xxiii. 34.

Many a death-struggle has been made to save a friend. A dying Saviour
gathers up His expiring breath to plead for His foes! At the climax of
His own woe, and of human ingratitude--man-forsaken, and
God-deserted--His faltering voice mingles with the shout of His
murderers,--"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do!" Had
the faithless Peter been there, could he have wondered at the reply to a
former question,--"Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and
I forgive him,--till seven times?" Jesus said unto him, "I say not unto
thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven." (Matt. xviii.
21.)

Superiority to insult and ignominy, with some, proceeds from a callous
and indifferent temperament,--a cold, phlegmatic, stoical insensibility,
alike to kindness or unkindness. It was not so with Jesus. The tender
sensibilities of His