“O blessed fellowship, divine, O joy, supremely sweet, Companionship with Jesus here, Makes life with joy replete; O wondrous grace, O joy sublime, I’ve Jesus with me all the time.” NOVEMBER 21. “Consider the lilies how they grow” (Matt. vi. 28). It is said that a little fellow was found one day by his mother, standing by a tall sunflower, with his feet stuck in the ground. When asked by her, “What in the world are you doing there?” he naively answered, “Why, I am trying to grow to be a man.” His mother laughed heartily at the idea of his getting planted in the ground in order to grow, like the sunflower, and then, patting him gently on the head, “Why, Harry, that is not the way to grow. You can never grow bigger by trying. Just come right in, and eat lots of good food, and have plenty of play, and you will soon grow to be a man without trying so hard.” Well, Harry’s mother was right. Mrs. H. W. Smith never said a sweeter thing than when she answered the question—“How do the lilies grow?” by simply adding, “They grow without trying.” Our sweetest spiritual life is the life of self-unconsciousness through which we become so united to Christ, and live continually on His life, nourished, fed and constantly filled with His Spirit and presence and all the fulness of His imparted life. NOVEMBER 22. “Cast the beam out of thine own eye” (Matt. vii. 5). Greater than the fault you condemn and criticise is the sin of criticism and condemnation. There is no place we need such grace as in dealing with an erring one. A lady once called on us on her way to give an erring sister a piece of her mind. We advised her to wait until she could love her a little more. Only He who loved sinners well enough to die for them can deal with the erring. We never see all the heart. He does, and He can convict without condemning, and reprove without discouraging. Oh, for more of the heart of Christ! Take care, brother, how you speak of another’s fault. Ere you know, you may be in the same or deeper condemnation. Very significantly does the Master say that the man that sees a mote in his brother’s eye, usually has a rafter in his own eye! One of the two unpardonable sins of the Bible is unforgiving lovelessness. “Give me a heart like Thine, Give me a heart like Thine, By Thy wonderful power, By Thy grace every hour, Give me a heart like Thine.” NOVEMBER 23. “It is high time to awake out of sleep” (Rom. xiii. 11). One of the greatest enemies to faith is indolence. It is much easier to lie and suffer than to rise and overcome; much easier to go to sleep on a snowbank and never wake again, than to rouse one’s self and shake off the lethargy and overcome the stupor. Faith is an energetic art; prayer is intense labor; the effectual working prayer of the righteous man availeth much.