'Think you, midst all this mighty sum
Of things for ever speaking,
That nothing of itself will come,
But we must still be seeking?'

Get away into the 'secret place of the Most High,' and rise into a
higher altitude and atmosphere than the region of work and effort;
and sitting still with Christ, let His love and His power pour
themselves into your hearts. 'Come, My people, enter thou into thy
chambers and shut thy doors about thee.' Get away from the jangling
of politics, and empty controversies and busy distractions of daily
duty. The harder our toil necessarily is, the more let us see to it
that we keep a little cell within the central life where in silence
we hold communion with the Master. 'Abide in Me and I in you.'

That is the way to be fruitful, rather than by efforts after
individual acts of conformity and obedience, howsoever needful and
precious these are. There is a deeper thing wanted than these. The
best way to secure Christian conduct is to cultivate communion with
Christ. It is better to work at the increase of the central force
than at the improvement of the circumferential manifestations of it.
Get more of the sap into the branch, and there will be more fruit.
Have more of the life of Christ in the soul, and the conduct and the
speech will be more Christlike. We may cultivate individual graces at
the expense of the harmony and beauty of the whole character. We may
grow them artificially and they will be of little worth--by imitation
of others, by special efforts after special excellence, rather than
by general effort after the central improvement of our nature and
therefore of our life. But the true way to influence conduct is to