When my little son was about ten years old, his grandmother promised him a stamp collecting album for Christmas. Christmas came and went with no stamp album and no word from Grandma. The matter, however, was not mentioned, until his friends came to see his Christmas presents. I was astonished, after he had listed all the gifts he had received, to hear him add, “And a stamp album from my grandmother.”

After hearing this several times, I called my son to me and said, “But, George, you didn’t get a stamp album from Grandma. Why did you say you did?”

With a puzzled look on his face, as if I had asked a very strange question, he replied, “Well, Mom, Grandma said, and that is the same as.” Not a word from me would sway his faith.

A month passed and nothing else was said about the album. Finally one day, to test his faith and because I wondered in my own heart why the album had not been sent, I said, “George, I think Grandma has forgotten her promise.”

“Oh no, Mom,” he quickly and firmly responded. “She hasn’t.” I watched his sweet, trusting face, which for a while looked very serious, as if he were debating the possibility I had suggested. Soon his face brightened as he said, “Do you think it would do any good for me to write Grandma, thanking her for the album?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “but you might try it.” A rich spiritual truth then began to dawn on me.

In a few minutes a letter was written and mailed, as George went off whistling his confidence in his grandma. Soon a letter from Grandma arrived with this message:

My dear George, I have not forgotten my promise to you for a stamp album. I could not find the one you wanted here, so I ordered one from New York. It did not arrive until after Christmas, and it was not the right one. I then ordered another, but it still has not arrived. I have decided to send you thirty dollars instead so that you may buy the one you want in Chicago. Your loving Grandma.

As he read the letter, his face was the face of a victor. From the depths of a heart that never doubted came the words, “Now, Mom, didn’t I tell you?” George “against all hope . . . in hope believed” (Romans 4:18) that the stamp album would come. And while he was trusting, Grandma was working, and in due time faith became sight.

It is only human to want to see before we step out on the promises of God. Yet our Savior said to Thomas and to a long list of doubters who have followed, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). MRS. ROUNDS

There are those to whom no visions come, no moments upon the mount suffused with a glory that never was on land or sea. Do not envy the men of vision. It may be that the vision is given to strengthen a faith that else were weak. It is to the people who can live along the line of what others call the commonplace, and yet trust, that the Master says, “Blessed.”

Beware of a life of fitful impulse. Live and act on sustained principle. It is a poor thing— the flash of summer lightning, compared with the steady luster of moon and star.

“The darkest night has stars in it!”

When the low mood comes, open your New Testament. Read it imaginatively: stand on the shore at Capernaum, visit the home at Bethany, sit by Jacob’s well and in the Upper Room, look into the eyes of Jesus, listen to His voice, take a walk around by Calvary, remember the crown of thorns, then tell yourself (for it is true), “All this was for me! The Son of God loved me, and gave Himself for me.” And see if a passion of praise does not send the low mood flying.

“Praise and service are great healers.” When life grows sore and wounding, and it is difficult to be brave, praise God! Sing something, and you will rally your own heart with the song!

You must learn to swim and hold your head above the water even when the sense of His Presence is not with you to hold up your chin. GARDEN OF SPICES

Do not depend on frames or feelings. You cannot always live in the tropics.

How important it is for God to keep us focused on things that are unseen, for we are so easily snared by the things we can see! If Peter was ever going to walk on the water, he had to walk, but if he was going to swim to Jesus, he had to swim. He could not do both. If a bird is going to fly, it must stay away from fences and trees, trusting the buoyancy of its wings. And if it tries to stay within easy reach of the ground, it will never fly very well.

God had to bring Abraham to the end of his own strength and let him see that with his own body he could do nothing. He had to consider his own body “as good as dead” (Hebrews 11:12) and then trust God to do all the work. When he looked away from himself and trusted only God, he became “fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised” (Romans 4:21).

This is what God is teaching us, and He has to keep results that are encouraging away from us until we learn to trust Him without them. Then He loves to make His Word as real to us in actuality as it is in our faith. A. B. SIMPSON

I do not ask that He must prove His Word is true to me, And that before I can believe He first must let me see. It is enough for me to know It’s true because He says it’s so; On His unchanging Word I’ll stand And trust till I can understand. E. M. WINTER

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.

After that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

We walk by faith, not by sight.

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

We walk by faith, not by sight.—We love him, because he first loved us.—And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.—In whom ye trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.—God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.—Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.