strangers, sojourners, indeed more, ambassadors, representatives of a government foreign to the present prince of this world. It is only as we keep in perfect sympathy with the homeland and its Head that there can flow into and through us all the immeasurable power of our King. Whatever interrupts that intercourse with headquarters interrupts the flow of power in our lives and service. We must guard most jealously against such things. Electricity helps a man here, in the similes it suggests. For instance the electric current passing into a building is sometimes mysteriously turned aside and work seriously interrupted. A cross-wire dropping down out of place, and leaning upon the feed-wire has drawn the power into itself and off somewhere else. The cross is apt to be in some unknown place, and much searching is frequently necessary before it can be found and fixed. And all the work affected by that feed-wire waits till the fixing is done. The spirit atmosphere in which we live is full, chock-full, of cross-currents. And a man has to be keenly alert to keep his feed-wire clear. If it be crossed, or grounded, away goes the power, while he may be wondering why. What are some of the cross-currents that threaten to draw the power of the feed-wire? Well, just like the electric currents some of them seem very trivial. Here are a few of the commoner ones:-- Failure to keep bodily appetites under control. Intimate fellowship with those who are enemies of our Lord, it may be in some organization, or otherwise. The absence of a spirit of loving sympathy. The dominance in one's life of a critical spirit which saps the warmth out of everything it touches. Jealousy, and the whole brood which that single word suggests. Keeping money which God would have out in service for himself. Self-seeking. Self-assertion. A frivolous spirit, instead of a joyous winsomeness, or a sweet seriousness. Overworking one's bodily strength, which grows out of a wrong ambition, and is trusting one's own efforts more than God's power, and which always involves disobedience of His law for the body. Over-anxiety which robs the mind of its freshness, and the spirit of its sweetness, and whose roots are the same as overwork. The hot hasty word. The uncontrolled temper. The pride that will not confess to having been in the wrong. Lack of rugged honesty in speech. Carelessness in money matters. Lack of reverence for the body. The unholy use between two, whose relation is the most sacred of earth, of that hallowed function of nature which has rigidly but one normal use. Some personal habit which may be common enough, and for which plausible arguments can be made, but which does take the fine edge off of the inner consciousness of the Master's approval. Keen shrewd scheming for position by those in holy service.