Fear and love rise up in antagonism to each other as motives in life, like those two mountains from which respectively the blessings and curses of the old law were pronounced--the Mount of Cursing all barren, stony, without verdure and without water; the Mount of Blessing green and bright with many a flower, and blessed with many a trickling rill. Fear is barren. Love is fruitful. The one is a slave, and its work is little worth. The other is free, and its deeds are great and precious. From the blasted summit of the mountain which gendereth to bondage may be heard the words of the law; but the power to keep all these laws must be sought on the sunny hill where liberty dwells in love and gives energy to obedience. Therefore, if you would use in your own life the highest power that God has given us for our growth in grace, draw your arguments, not from fear, but from love.--_Alex. McLaren._ =April 24th.= _The love of Christ constraineth us. 2 Cor. v. 14._ The love of Christ is too large for any heart to hold it. It will overflow into others' hearts: it will give itself out, give itself away, for the enriching of other lives. The heart of Christ is a costly thing for any one to have. It will lead those who have it where it led Him. If it cost Him the cross, it will cost them no less.--_J. M. Campbell._ =April 25th.= _I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee. Isa. xli. 13._ Don't try to hold God's hand; let Him hold yours. Let Him do the _holding_, and you do the _trusting_.--_H. W. Webb Peploe._ =April 26th.= _Consider how great things He hath done for you. 1 Sam. xii. 24._ Look back on all the way the Lord your God has led you. Do you not see it dotted with ten thousand blessings in disguise? Call to mind the needed succor sent at the critical moment; the right way chosen for you, in stead of the wrong way you had chosen for yourself; the hurtful thing to which your heart so fondly clung, removed out of your path; the breathing-time granted, which your tried and struggling spirit just at the moment needed. Oh, has not Jesus stood at your side when you knew it not? Has not Infinite Love encircled every event with its everlasting arms, and gilded every cloud with its merciful lining? Oh, retrace your steps, and mark His footprint in each one! Thank Him for them all, and learn the needed lesson of leaning more simply on Jesus.--_F. Whitfield._ =April 27th.= _He . . . said . . . I . . . hid thy talent in the earth. . . . His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant. Matt. xxv. 24-26._ Between the great things we cannot do and the small things we will not do, the danger is that we shall do nothing.--_Monod._ =April 28th.= _To Him be glory both now and forever. 2 Pet. iii. 18._