May 28

"Lord, it is nothing with Thee to help."—2 Chronicles 14:11.

SIMPLE faith is fearless. Its strength is as the strength of ten, though it has to do battle against a world in arms; for it sees the invisible God hastening to its succour. Lord, increase my faith, in order that, when I am face to face with the fury of the tempest and the pride of the adversary, I may know that Thou art nearer still.

Big battalions are helpless. God must be behind the army and the fleet, or they will avail nothing. If He is against them, a little thing will abase all their glitter and power. Lord, show me where my true success and prosperity are to be found—in Thee and not in the arm of flesh or the resource of man.

Child-like prayer is invincible. It calls angels and archangels and the hierarchy of heaven to my side. It summons to my weakness the wisdom and holiness and might and truth of the Most High God. Lord, teach me to find in prayer a trusty weapon, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.

God's intervention is real. Less quietly and less startlingly than in the age of miracle, but not a whit less effectively, He will interpose for my deliverance. His arm is not shortened in these later months of the Church's year, nor has His ear grown heavy. Lord, what time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.

There are noble and beautiful souls who have walked much in gloom—Thomas called Didymus, William Cowper, Amiel of Geneva, Gilmour of Mongolia: often their life seemed to them "but as an arrow flying in the dark." But, because I have such a God, and because He is all my own, let me put sadness away and array myself in joy.