May 3 — Morning

Art you asking the reason of this, believer? Look upward to your heavenly Father, and look Him pure and holy. Dost you know that you art one day to be like Him? Will you easily be conformed to His image? Will you not require much refining in the furnace of affliction to purify you? Will it be an easy thing to get rid of your corruptions, and make you perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect? Next, Christian, turn your eye downward. Dost you know what foes you have beneath your feet? You were once a servant of Satan, and no king will willingly lose his subjects. Dost you think that Satan will let you alone? No, he will be always at you, for he "gos about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." Expect trouble, therefore, Christian, when you lookest beneath you. Then look around you. Where art you? You art in an enemy's country, a stranger and a sojourner. The world is not your friend. If it be, then you art not God's friend, for he who is the friend of the world is the enemy of God. Be assured that you shalt find foe-men everywhere. When you sleepest, think that you art resting on the battlefield; when you walkest, suspect an ambush in every hedge. As mosquitoes are said to bite strangers more than natives, so will the trials of earth be sharpest to you. Lastly, look within you, into your own heart and observe what is there. Sin and self are still within. Ah! if you hadst no devil to tempt you, no enemies to fight you, and no world to ensnare you, you would still find in thyself evil enough to be a sore trouble to you, for "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Expect trouble then, but despond not on account of it, for God is with you to help and to strengthen you. He has said, "I will be with you in trouble; I will deliver you and honour you."