“Well, be a law keeper if you must, but keep the whole law, and keep it perfectly, in spirit and in letter, or you will fail!  And if you fail in one single instance, in spirit or in letter, you fail in all, and must bear the curse.  You must continue in all things written in the law to do them.  Are you ready to try that?  Christ could do it, and he did do it, but can you?  And, if not, what?  You must choose between keeping the law and trusting in Christ who has kept it for you.  You cannot serve two masters:  the Law and Christ.  Now, I know I cannot keep the law and so I have given up; all I can do is to trust in Christ to save me, in Christ who is able to obey all God’s law for me, and so I trust him and love him, and obey him with the strength he gives me.  If we love him, we will keep his commandments, he says.  ’I can do all things through Christ strengthening me’—­even keep his commandments, which are not grievous.  If you must be a law keeper in your own strength, give up Christ and cling to the law to save you, or else give up keeping the law for your salvation and cling to Christ.  Keep his commandments because you love him, and not keep the old law to save your soul by your own obedience.  Read the Bible because you love it, every word.  Read till you are full of some message he gives you, and then shut it up; don’t keep on, because you must read so many chapters a day.

“My plan is—­and I tell you because it has been blessed to me—­to ask him to feed me with his truth, feed me full, and then I open the Book and read.  One day I was filled full with one clause:  ’Because they fainted.’  I closed it, I could read no more.  At another time I read a whole Epistle before I had all I was hungry for.  One evening I read a part of Romans and was so excited that I could not sleep for some time that night.  Don’t you like that better than reading on and on because you have set yourself to do it, and ending with a feeling of relief because it is done, at last?  These human hearts are naughty things and need more grace continually.  Just try my way—­not my way but God’s way for me,—­and see how full you will be fed with your daily reading.

“I just bethought myself of a page in an old journal; I’ll copy it for you.  It has notes of my daily reading.  I wish I had kept the references, but all I have is the thought I gathered.  I’ll give it to you just as I have it.

“’April 24, 18—.  Preparation is needed to receive the truth.

“’25.  Ezekiel saw the glory before he heard the Voice.

“’26.  He permits long waiting.

“’27.  It is blessed to hear his voice, even if it be to declare punishment.

“’28.  The word of God comes through the lips of men.

“’29.  God works with us when we work with him.

“’30.  God’s work, and not man’s word, is the power,

“’May 1.  Man fails us, then we trust in God.