September 15

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. — 1 SAM. xv. 22.

My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. — JOHN iv. 34.

HUNGRY, thirsty, and weary. Jesus comes at noon-day to the well of Samaria. He finds rest in labor, drink in holy converse, and food in bringing a lost soul to God.

Not only do physical conditions affect the spiritual life, but in a larger degree than we are wont to imagine, spiritual conditions affect the physical life. Bodily ailments depress the spirit: spiritual exercise invigorates the body. The entire man, body and soul, feels the refreshing and stimulating influence of close companionship with God in will and work. The servant of God forgets his bodily wants in the joy of becoming the channel through which God flows into other lives.

These words are not spoken concerning a purely personal, unrelated experience. Jesus does not find his food, in this instance at least, in contemplation or self-inspection. He does God's will and accomplishes God's work, with a sinful woman as the object in which his activity centres. It is not enough that we know God's will. The blessed truths of revelation will not be food to us except as we assimilate those truths by our activity. The soul has its laws of development and growth. One of the chief of these laws, the law of labor, is given divine emphasis in the words before us.

T. A. Brundell

Help us through good report and ill

Our daily cross to bear,

Like thee to do our Father's will,

Our brother's grief to share.

JOHN H. CURNEY.