December 8

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in."—Psalms 24:7.

LIFT up your heads, O ye gates! Let the doors of all hearts, all temples, all kingdoms, be thrown wide before Jesus. Britain and America—let them worship Him in spirit and in truth. In frozen Greenland let the Eskimo be warmed by His good news and His Holy Spirit. In the forests of Africa let the bushmen sing His praises. In the islands of the far Pacific let men and women wait for His law and welcome His easy yoke. And let the Jews seek and find the Messias, Him of whom Moses and the prophets did write.

But especially let my soul be opened to Him.

If I am a sinner who has said No to Him a thousand times, shall I not confess to-day my foolishness? I have only to admit my need of Him. I have only to consent to His redeeming me. I have only to leave the whole matter to Him, with whom nothing is impossible. And so I shall unbar my door, and the King of Glory will do all the rest.

If I am a Christian who has had a very intermittent experience of His grace, shall I not to-day search out and bewail my sin? What idols I have been raising to His throne! What unwatchfulness I have been chargeable with! What alliances I have made with the world and the flesh and the devil! I must comply with the conditions of His abiding. I must surrender myself to Him definitely, fully, finally. And so I shall throw wide my door.

No longer shalt Thou stand without, Thy head filled with the dew, Thy locks with the drops of the night, O thou Blessed of the Lord.