the rain? So a church that hasn't any of the dew of
heaven, any of the rain that comes down in showers, will be as barren
as the earth would be without the dew and rain.

A Personal Matter

"The life of Christianity," says Luther, "consists of personal
pronouns. It is one thing to say, 'Christ is a Savior.' It is quite
another to say, 'He is _my_ Savior.' The devil can say the first. Only
the true Christian can say the second."

They Knew It

Let me tell you how I had my eyes opened about the theater question. I
had an assistant superintendent of a Sabbath school, a very promising
young man, who seemed to be very happy in the work. A star actor came
to the city, and he went to see him. I knew nothing of it, but the
next Sunday when he came into the Sunday-school all over the building
the boys cried out:

"Hypocrite! Hypocrite!"

The perspiration started out of every pore of my body; I thought they
were looking at me. I said to the little newsboys:

"Who are you calling a hypocrite?"

They mentioned the assistant's name. I asked the reason, and they
said:

"We saw him going into the theater."

I had never said anything about the theater to those children, but
they saw that man going in, and called him a hypocrite. They seemed to
know it was no place for a Christian to go. He lost his influence
entirely, withdrew from the school, and after a while gave up
Christian work altogether. He was just swept along with the tide in
Chicago and his influence was lost.

Pull for the Shore

A vessel was wrecked off the shore. Eager eyes were watching and
strong arms manned the life-boat. For hours they tried to reach that
vessel through the great breakers that raged and foamed on the
sand-bank, but it seemed impossible. The boat appeared to be leaving
the crew to perish. But after a while the captain and sixteen men were
taken off, and the vessel went down.

"When the life-boat came to you," said a friend, "did you expect it
had brought some tools to repair your old ship?"

"Oh, no," was the response; "she was a total wreck. Two of her masts
were gone, and if we had stayed mending her only a few minutes, we
must have gone down sir."

"When once off the old wreck and safe in the life-boat what remained
for you to do?"

"Nothing, sir, but just to pull for the shore."

Man can't save himself. He has been wrecked by sin, and his only
safety lies in taking Jesus Christ as his Savior.

Easy, and Yet Diffic