FEBRUARY 16

MORNING

HRIST . . . hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.--Unto you therefore who believe he is precious.--God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.--In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

      If ye love me, keep my commandments.--The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.--The house was filled with the odour of the ointment.--They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

      O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.--Emmanuel . . . God with us.--His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.--The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.

EVENING

We that are in this tabernacle do groan,

ORD, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee . . . My iniquities have gone over my head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.--O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

      The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves, . . . which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, . . . groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.--Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.

      Shortly I must put off this my tabernacle.--For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.