ight be always strong in Thee:
Bound, that I might be free;
Acquaint with grief that I might only know
Fulness of joy, in everlasting flow.

* * * * *

_For suggested Meditations during the week see Appendix._

IX

=Discipline through Victory=

EASTER DAY

Romans vi. 9

"Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more."

To couple the word discipline with victory may seem incongruous almost
to the point of impossibility. Yet, if we look below the surface, we
shall see that never is the connection more strong and the need for
realising it more urgent.

Lent is over, its special discipline has passed, and now the danger
begins. The danger is lest any progress made, any victory won, should
lead to that self-confidence which can only end in disaster. Success is
often a discipline far more fatal in its results than failure.

We celebrate to-day the grandest victory the world has ever known: a
victory which sprang out of the depths of an apparently complete defeat.
"We trusted that it was He which should have redeemed Israel." Vain
confidence, for how could One Who had died as a malefactor, Who could
not save Himself, rescue His nation from the tyranny of the Roman power?
And then He, this stranger Whom they knew not, opened to them the
Scriptures; showed them the necessity of the sufferings, and the great
climax, in the Resurrection. The ears were dull, the hearts unconvinced,
as they generally are by mere argument, till he revealed Himself in "the
breaking of bread." The eyes of love could not be deceived and sorrow
gave place to joy.

Some dispute has arisen as to whether we ought to pray for victory in
this War. The matter is well put by an anonymous writer: "If we are only
to pray in matters wherein there is no difference of opinion our prayers
will be few, and if we cannot pray for the triumph of honour over
falsehood, of respect for treaties over unscrupulousness, of order
over cruelty and outrage, for what are we ever to pray? We must pray
according to the light we have. And if we end our prayers with the truly
Christian supplement 'Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt,'
we cannot be doing anything contrary to the principles of the highest
religion. Surely prayer is, or should be, merely the expression of our
best hopes and wishes submitted to a Divine tribunal."

Putting aside the question of prayer, let us consider for a moment what
shoul