If there is any sin in my heart that I am not willing to confess and to give up, I need not expect a blessing. The men who have had power with God in prayer have always begun by confessing their sins. Take the prayers of Jeremiah and Daniel. We find Daniel confessing his sin, when there isn't a single sin recorded against him.

APRIL 3d.

Thou shalt not make unto Thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.-Exodus xx. 4.

I

WOULD a great deal sooner have five minutes' communion with Christ than spend years before pictures and images of Him. Whatever comes between my soul and my Maker is not a help to me, but a hindrance. God has given different means of grace by which we can approach Him. Let us use these, and not seek for other things that He has distinctly forbidden.

APRIL 4th.

Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.-Daniel vi. 5.

HAT a testimony from his bitterest ene

WHAT

mies! Would that it could be said of all of us! He had never taken a bribe, he had

never been connected with a "ring." Ah, how his name shines! He had commenced to shine in his early manhood, and he shone right along. Now he is an old man, an old statesman, and yet this is their testimony.

Character is worth more than money. Character is worth more than anything else in the wide world. I would rather in my old age have such a character as that which Daniel's enemies gave him than have raised over my dead body a monument of gold reaching from earth to sky.

APRIL 5th.

And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.—2 Corinthians xii. 9.

WHEN

HEN we are weak then we are strong. People often think they have not strength enough; the fact is we have too much strength. It is when we feel that we have no strength of our own, that we are willing God should use us, and work through us. If we are leaning on God's strength, we have more than all the strength of the world.

APRIL 6th.

Having made peace through the blood of His cross. .-Colossians i. 20.

A

GREAT

many people are trying to make their peace with God, but that has already been done. God has not left it for us to do; all that we have to do is to enter into it, to accept it. It is a condition, and instead of our trying to make peace and to work for peace, we want to cease all that, and simply enter into peace that has been purchased for us.

IT

APRIL 7th.

I will be with him in trouble.-Psalm xci. 15. T is a great thing to have a place of resort in the time of trouble. How people get on without the God of the Bible is a mystery to me. If I didn't have such a refuge, a place to go and pour out my heart to God in such times, I don't know what I would do. It seems as if I would go out of my mind. But to think, when the heart is burdened, we can go and pour it into His ear, and then have the answer come back, "I will be with Him," there is comfort in that!

I thank God for the old Book. I thank God for this old promise. It is as sweet and fresh to-day as it has ever been. Thank God, none of those promises are out of date, or grown stale. They are as fresh and vigorous and young and sweet as ever.

APRIL 8th.

In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.-John xiv. 2.

WHAT has been, and is now, one of the

WHAT

strongest feelings in the human heart? Is it not to find some better place, some lovelier spot, than we now have? It is for this that men everywhere are seeking, and they can have it if they will; but instead of looking down, they must look up to find it. As men grow in knowledge, they vie with each other more and more in making their homes attractive, but the brightest home on earth is but an empty barn compared with the mansions Jesus has gone to prepare.

APRIL 9th.

I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.-Luke xv. 18.

NE of the greatest battles ever fought was

ONE

being fought out then. Everything holy and heavenly was beckoning the prodigal home. The powers of darkness were trying to keep him from returning.

"You go back and they'll all laugh at you. What'll they say?" said the devil.

No doubt there was an angel hovering over

him, watching for the decision, and when he said, "I will arise," the angel bore it on high. “Make another crown. Get another robe ready. There's another sinner coming!"

That "I will" echoed and reëchoed, and there was joy in the presence of the angels. He is saved. His heart has got home already. The battle with pride and sin is over.

APRIL 10th.

For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.-Matthew xxiii. 39.

WHEN Christ returns, He will not be

treated as He was before.

be room for Him at Bethlehem.

There will

He will be

welcome in Jerusalem. He will reveal Himself as Joseph revealed himself to his brethren. He will say to the Jews, "I am Jesus," and they will reply: "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." And the Jews will then be that nation that shall be born in a day.

APRIL IIth.

Ye shall seek Me and find Me when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.-Jeremiah xxix. 13.

THESE

'HESE are the men who find Christ-those who seek for Him with all their heart. I am tired and sick of half-heartedness. You don't like a half-hearted man, you don't care for