May 24

1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

4 For while one with, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal?

5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?

6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

7 So then neither is he that planteth any-

thing, neither be that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one; and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master-bulth, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

13 Every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

14 If any man's work abide which he hath built there upon, he shall receive a reward. 15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer less; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

"'Ye are God's husbandry.' For you He thinks. For you He tills. He is breaking-in your disposition. He is preparing the soil of your hearts. He is cultivating you now by ways that make you cry out with pain—for all plowing and harrowing is painful. . . . Let your bosom lie open to His influence as the soil lies open to the sun. Let God do as seemeth Him good; and by-and-by, with all your faculties, with every feeling of your nature, you shall, in the great harvest, bless God."—H. W. Brecher.

We are all of us architects, or, rather, we are laborers together with God as the great Architect. We are building up the soul into character. Like Solomon's Temple, it goes up without sound of hammer or toil. No solid granite, no glistening marble, but thoughts, feelings, purposes, are its materials. "Out of these thin and evanescent things we are building a structure that shall outlive the mountains, the globe, and time itself. Day by day the courses go up, tier upon tier, story above story." Oh that we could stand afar off and see what we build! But no, the soul is built in silence; invisible, it yet abides like adamant.

Closet Promise.—For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.—1 Cor. iii. 21-23.

"In having all things and not Thee, what have I? Not having Thee, what have my labors got? Let me enjoy but Thee, what further crave I? And, having Thee alone, what have I not?

I wish not sea nor land, nor would I be Possessed of heaven, heaven unpossessed of Thee."