December 12

Immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

IT is a memorable moment in the history of a man's spirit when the righteousness of God ceases to be a ground of anxiety or apprehension, and becomes a ground of assured hope and confidence,—when he perceives that it cannot be satisfied with punishment but must always desire to communicate itself. As soon as he discovers that the purpose of God in giving him a law is to train him into a participation of His own righteousness and blessedness, that very moment the Law becomes Gospel and his Judge becomes his Father. The revelation of this purpose, then, is the Gospel, and it is virtually made to every man, for the light in his conscience which condemns his sin ought to be understood as "The goodness of God leading him to repentance." What means God may use for this end we cannot tell, but when we see what His fatherly purpose is we are enabled to trust ourselves in His hands, and to look without fear into an unending futurity. We can rest in the assurance that the only power in the universe—the power by which all other things exist—seeks and must ever seek for us that righteousness which is our only possible blessedness.

THOMAS ERSKINE OF LIN- LATHEN

THE AWAKENING

I 2 Dec. Evening

And was found in fashion as a man.

THE very God! think Abib; dost thou think? So, the All-Great were the All-Loving too,— So, through the thunder comes a human voice Saying, “O heart I made, a heart beats here! Face, my hands fashioned, see it in Myself! Thou hast no power nor mayst conceive of Mine, But love I gave thee, with Myself to love, And thou must love Me, who have died for thee.”

ROBERT BROWNING

THE COMMUNION OF PAIN