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CONSECRATION.

Submission is a strong word, consecration still stronger. Surrender is cessation of resistance, consecration a transfer of all we are and have to Christ for active service. It covers person and property, talents and opportunities, and accepts of Christ as leader, manager, friend, and Saviour; present, active, and efficient in all the minutiae of life. There are degrees of consecration, and even entire consecration is progressive, for new interests, cares, burdens, capacities and opportunities arise and await disposal, and Christ is revealed in new relations, making new demands, offering new privileges; and these await trustful acceptance, so that ever and anon the proposition to devote all to Christ and receive all of Christ, claims fresh attention. Many commit spiritual interests to his care and worry on alone with temporal concerns; they trust him to save their souls, but hesitate to ask his aid in business; accept daily grace, but doubt respecting daily bread; rejoice in Christ as a Saviour, but fail to apprehend him as a brother, a companion, a present, constant friend. Consecration is not absolutely perfect until the fulness of our Lord is perceived and received, and the fulness of life is devoted to him, for every revelation of Christ calls for new devotion from us. The consecration must be as broad as the apprehension, covering the fulness of Christ and the fulness of man.—Sel.

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