Every morning

Introduction

THIS book of morning devotions which has been so carefully prepared by Mr. Cluett will receive, I am sure, a very grateful reception from those into whose hands it falls, for it has been prepared with a degree of care and a knowledge of the use of Scripture truths which will warm the heart, enlighten the mind, and quicken response.

We are thinking today more than in recent years of the quiet hour and gaining anew the true meaning of special meditation. If the Saviour could not do His busy work, condensed into those three years of active service, without constant and repeated retirement in body and in mind that He might meditate and pray, we err in trying to meet our lesser responsibilities by any other method. Well has it been said recently, "We can do nothing before we pray.''

We shall find in this volume scriptural truth and prayer closely related thereto by a wisdom in the selection of its topical arrangements which will appeal to all of us, as we consider our need and relate it to the large responsibilities of this day and generation.

When Austin Phelps gave to the world "'The Still Hour," there was a timely response in every heart and the many kindred devotional works which have come from the lives of men of piety and action have ever influenced their day to men's need of possessing their souls in quietness and confidence. The turmoil and disorder we see all about us in our land and abroad; the nebulous matter that clouds our clear vision into the distances — all suggest the need of faith and service vv^hich have the receptivity, mentality, and spirituality of photographic plate. The great distances of the heavens and the stars of smaller magnitude are reproduced through the evidence of photography in the present magnifying power, which has opened a new heavens by the adjustments and appliances of the telescope. Thus today the Holy Spirit is showing us the distances and vastnesses and actualities of faith, through the far and near approaches of prayer, influenced and associated with the Word of God.

This little book will open new realms of light and distance to those who meditate thereon, and will not only enrich our Christian experience day by day, but will give us added anticipations of vision in the realm of the divine Word. If our eye be single. He has promised that our whole body shall be full of light. If the Word of God is related aright to the duties of each recurring day, we shall find in "the trivial round, the common task ... a road to bring us daily nearer God.''

John Timothy Stone.