March 21

Thursday after Septuagesima Sunday

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. 2 Timothy 2:15.

IF we mean to do God any service we must be set on fire with love. No kind of offering, nothing that we can do or say for Christ, can be accepted by Him unless it comes from love. "Have we not taught in Thy Name? and in Thy Name cast out devils? and in Thy Name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you." O that we could make this coming Lent a new starting-point in God's service, and say with S. Paul, "This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before." This is the only way to get on in our Christian course, to account what we have already done as nothing; to consider that all still remains to do. It will not always be thus. The race, if we hold on in it, will some day be run; the battle, if we persevere in it, will some day be fought; the prize, if we contend for it, will some day be gained. Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour till the evening, but not beyond; that glorious evening which brings rest from labour, and is never followed by night.

Rest comes at length: though life be long and dreary,

The day must dawn and darksome night be past:

All journeys end in welcomes to the weary,

And heaven, the heart's true home, will come at last.

Cheer up, my soul! faith's moonbeams softly glisten

Upon the breast of life's most troubled sea:

And it will cheer thy drooping heart to listen

To those brave songs which angels mean for thee.

Angels of Jesus,

Angels of light,

Singing to welcome

The pilgrims of the night

F