But it is much more than mere abstract help and grace, much more even than the Holy Spirit bringing us strength, and peace, and purity. It is personal companionship with Jesus Himself! Lord, help us receive from Thee to-day, that grace in all trial that shall mean our perfecting in Thee. JULY 19. “Nevertheless, David took the castle of Zion” (I. Chron. xi. 5). Many of you have so much fighting to do because you do not have one sharp, decisive battle to begin with. It is far easier to have one great battle than to keep on skirmishing all your life. I know men who spend forty years fighting what they call their besetting sin, and on which they waste strength enough to evangelize the world. Dear friends, does it pay to throw away your lives? Have one battle, one victory and then praise God. So they had rest from their enemies round about. There is labor to enter in. The height is steep. The way of the cross is not an easy way. It is hard to enter in, but having entered in there is perfect rest. May God help us and give us His perfect rest. O come and leave thy sinful self forever Beneath the fountain of the Saviour’s blood; O come, and take Him as thy Sanctifier, Come thou with us and we will do thee good. Come to the land where all the foes are vanquished, And sorrow, sin, disease and death subdued; O weary soul! by Satan bruised and baffled, Come thou with us and we will do thee good. JULY 20. “Forget also thine own” (Ps. xlv. 10). We, too, like the ancient Levites, must be “consecrated every one upon our son and upon our brother,” and “forget our kindred and our father’s house” in every sense in which they could hinder our full liberty and service for the Lord. We, too, must let our business go if it stands between us and the Lord, and in any case let it henceforth be His business and His alone, pursued for Him, controlled by Him, and its profits wholly dedicated to Him, and used as He shall direct. And, like James and John, you must be willing to give up “the hired servants” too. It will make a great difference in your way of living. It will be a change to give up your ease and luxury, your being waited upon and indulged in every wish, and have to do your own work, to give up the attentions of others, to put with privations, and inconveniences, and humiliations, but it will be easy to do it with Him. He never owned a foot of land. He never rode in a carriage. He never had a hired servant. He lay down at last in a borrowed grave. But He is rich enough now, and so will you be some day if you can only be willing to suffer and to wait. JULY 21. “Look from the place where thou art” (Gen. xiii. 14).