My mind has been much exercised these two days by reflections on the ease with which the soul is taken off from living in Christ. In prosperity, we are occupied with plans; in adversity, with our sorrows; in missionary labour, in preparation for what we intend to do for the Lord, and even in our very times of danger we are constantly exposed to the temptation of looking for relief to circumstances, rather than to the Lord of circumstances--to the love of the Lord of life. May the Lord of his great goodness grant that my soul may reap a full harvest from these reflections, and determine not only in words to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified, as the subject of preaching, but as the object on which my soul constantly dwells, so that growing up into his fulness in understanding and love, may be the business of my future life, and much, yea, very much more, the simple purpose of my heart than it has ever yet been. Nothing can be to me clearer than that the work of the Lord will really prosper in the hands of his servants, in proportion as these servants prosper in their nearness to him. May his love, his life, his words, his wishes be the abiding incentives in my soul to simply living to him and for him, and for his creatures through him. How easy it is for one person to make one class of sacrifices, and another, another; but how hard to slay the darling idol, and to tear away the cherished indulgence:--how easy it is to exercise those graces which accord with our natural constitutions, how difficult those which mortify and run counter to them. May it be the labour and delight of my future life to see each cherished idol one by one fall prostrate, slain before my Lord's love.