The Eighteenth of September.

WATCH AND PRAY --- Matthew 26:41, 46.

"Watch and pray: Let us be going." --- Matthew 26:41, 46.

"Remember Lot's wife." --- Luke 17:32.

"This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." --- Isaiah 30:21.

To be kept from self-righteousness on one hand, and from false liberty on the other, is the Christian way. But how shall I find this way? O my dear Jesus, thou art the way. Teach me then to walk in thy strength, to live in thy faith, to gaze much upon thee, to cleave firmly unto thee, and abide ever in thee; so shall I experience the liberty of the gospel, which yieldeth no license for sin, but bringeth joyful deliverance from its power.

For when my heart resteth on thee, it cannot rest in the flesh, and seek to fulfil its lusts; but being delighted with thy beauty and glorious love, all other things vanish, and I am kept watchful, close, and fervent.

When my forgetful soul renews
The savour of thy grace,
My heart presumes I cannot lose
The relish all my days.

But, ere one fleeting hour is past,
The flattering world employs
Some sensual bait, to seize my taste,
And to pollute my joys.

Then I repent, and vex my soul,
That I should leave thee so;
Where will those wild affections roll,
That let a Saviour go?

Show my forgetful feet the way
That leads to joys on high;
There knowledge grows without decay,
And love shall never die.

Devotion for September 18