February 20
Companions of the Way (Morning)Nor by the way-side ruins let us mourn, Who have the eternal towers for our appointed bourne.
SOME men used to believe that the city of Jerusalem was literally the centre of the earth; they drew their maps with all the rest of the world spread in a circle round that point. Have we not seen what is the spiritual truth which such ideas contained? The true life must always be going up to the City of God. It must go there for its first total consecration. It must go there for its education. It must go there for its work. It must go there to catch sight of the promised victory. And at last it must go there for its final sacrifice and pain, which bring the end and the victory. Under every variety of circumstance we go up to Him, and the gates of God are always open to us. He takes us in our sorrow and our joy, in our triumph or our shame, and every mood and time of life come to their best only as they enter into Him.
PHILLIPS BROOKS, The More Abundant Life