December 23

Twenty-third Monday after Trinity

Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. Philippians 3:17.

LET a true conformity to the beloved Son, the express Image of the Father, be the unmoved desire of the soul. Rise to an ambition which is above worlds, which soars to the highest heaven, which satisfies itself only in God. Shrink not even from the pro-founder depths of abasement, of shame, of loss, of giving place to another, of inward suffering, of being unknown to fame. We may choose the life of self-sacrifice, we cannot choose altogether the form in which it is destined to manifest itself in us. That is of God. We may perhaps choose its outward form as to its general bearing; we cannot choose its particular details. Nor can we always forecast our trials, or trace ourselves up to them by a certain foreknowledge. We cannot foresee them. Often they come suddenly, when we least expect them, when we had looked for a wholly different result. We cannot choose the exact form of the humiliation or suffering, we can choose the spirit of it. But we must ever cast ourselves on God, and wait till He uplift the veil, and shed within us the needed strength, and show us how His purpose is to be practically fulfilled. "Only grant, O Lord, that I may be a vessel of Thy love; only grant that I may be chastened into humility with Christ; only grant that I may be so weaned from all natural desires as to rise wholly above self." This each of us may ask, and resolve. The voice will be heard in its own time telling us, "This is the way, walk ye in it."