"have half a mind to do it," we sometimes say. What a curious thing is half a mind! Where are the great pictures it has painted, the books it has written, the palaces it has built? Where are the mountains it has scaled, the battles it has won, the continents it has discovered? What is done with half a mind no one cares to look upon; the sickly and abortive efforts are soon and best forgotten. But when we make up our mind, determine once for all, take a stand, put our heart into a thing, it means a great deal in any line of life. Medical authorities are now realizing more frankly the power of the imagination and will to create and direct physical conditions. They see that the imagination is a creative force; that will power is a scientific power; and more and more they aim to secure physiological effects by exciting the imagination, and setting the will to work. A healthy and hopeful will works wonders. "What doctor possesses such curative resources as those latent in a spark of happiness or a single ray of hope? The mainspring of life is the heart." And if the resolute, inflexible, energetic mind is so potent in questions of circumstance and health, its sphere is yet far wider and its influence far more emphatic in regard to the safeguarding and building up of character.

"I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress." Thus resolving, we master the tongue and put a bridle on our lips. We so

often transgress with our mouth because we have not definitely and firmly determined upon its government. "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord" (Ps. 112:7). We are afraid of evil tidings, and lack courage, because our faith is not steeled by a sanctified will, settled and steadfast. "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank" (Dan. I: 8). The solemn purpose in our heart to maintain temperance and purity will render us invincible. "He exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord" (Acts II: 23). If our consecration to Christ is thus determinate and final, we need not fear temptation and persecution. Let us not be dismayed; there is a strange depth of power within us if only we will call upon it. "I see what I want, and I do it," said one of our great painters; such language is most becoming in our lips who believe in God and in His grace which can more that fulfill all our desire.

XIII

THE SNARE OF SHALLOWNESS

And every one that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand.-Matt. 7: 26.

B

Y building on " the rock" our Lord spec

ifies those who put their trust in Himself and in His doctrine. "These words of Mine." To build on the rock is to rest our faith and hope in Him. This faith must be demonstrated in obedience to His commandments. "And doeth them." There is no true faith without obedience, and no true obedience without faith. We must know Christ as a Saviour, before we can obey Him as a lawgiver. A living faith in Christ and a true union with Him are essential to a true and lasting obedience. Christ our lawgiver, Christ our Redeemer, Christ our strength, here is the true foundation; and whosoever rests upon it abides forever. Why do men fail to build here? Why do they build on the sand ?—everything being sand that lies away from the truth and merit of Christ.

They consult appearance rather than reality. The house on the sand looks as well as the house

on the rock-its proportions as ample, its pillars as stately, its ornaments as rich, its towers as lofty; and in consequence of this fair seeming the builder is contented with his sand-based mansion. In matters of character the eye may similarly deceive us. We often hear of the excellent conduct of atheists, the irreproachable morality of secularists, the graces of worldlings. They have the appearance of goodness, without its life; its height, without its depth; its reflection, without its quality. So far as appearances are concerned, the man of the world is at no disadvantage compared with the man of God; the rationalist is as fair as the saint; the plausibility of the formalist outrivals the disciple who serves in spirit and in truth. And yet, despite appearance, that which does not go deep down and rest on the eternal rock lacks reality and permanence. Whatever is not founded on God, although built with silver, gold, and precious stones, is essentially false and doomed to failure.

"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." "Seemeth right." Now, every truly rational man is all his life watching against being imposed upon by appearances. Science aims to free us from optical illusions. The moon seems no bigger than a shield; the sun seems to rise and set; the stars seem only a few miles away. Experience and experiment are always freeing us

from the errors of sense, errors which sometimes lie on the surface, sometimes deeper down. What have we thinking men to do with "seeming"? We wish to know the fact of things, leaving "seeming" to children and barbarians. Be not satisfied with "appearing" to be right. A tree without a root, even though full of flowers and clusters, and a palace without a foundation, even were its stones marble and porphyry, are cruel deceits that time will certainly expose; and character not founded in the love and righteousness of God, whatever its charm, is a phantom structure, a baseless fabric reserved to a tragic fate.

They consult speed rather than thoroughness. Building on the sand, they make rapid progress and have nearly finished the structure before their neighbor on the rock has well begun. A leading idea of our Lord, however, touching character is that it should be worked out patiently and thoroughly: "A man building a house, who digged and went deep, and laid a foundation upon the rock" (Luke 6: 47, 48). He also taught that the seed failed because it had "no depth of earth." Real religious character begins in serious thought, deep feeling, earnest purpose, and all through life must be carried forwards with profound sincerity, painstaking, and sacrifice. Amongst ourselves only a few months transpire between laying the foundation stone of